tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56557546258069855162024-03-12T21:02:25.878-05:00Nerd StuffErik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-74684453412935822422013-03-21T23:56:00.000-05:002013-03-21T23:56:45.637-05:00New Super Mario Bros. U Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8rYLVC9g_t8/UUvZmItcv0I/AAAAAAAABIU/YMMp2Jc6Oag/s1600/new-super-mario-bros-u-screenshots-oxcgn-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8rYLVC9g_t8/UUvZmItcv0I/AAAAAAAABIU/YMMp2Jc6Oag/s320/new-super-mario-bros-u-screenshots-oxcgn-13.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
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<b>New Super Mario Bros. U</b></div>
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Enjoy it folks. It and Lego City are pretty much the only worthwhile Wii U games until September.</div>
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<b>Graphics</b></div>
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Vivid, colourful and creative. Same old same old. That's not a bad thing, but it's certainly nothing revolutionary. Everything is well-polished and it looks very good in high definition.</div>
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I have noticed some areas of jagged geometry on the world map though; nothing you'd spot if you weren't looking for it but at the same time rather lazy for a game on this hardware.</div>
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There are some pretty neat in-level effects, such as fog clouds and whatnot. Particularly noticeable is the rim lighting that turns up on the walls/floors whenever something luminescent is near them (for instance a fireball, or a Star-powered Mario). It's an appreciable effect.</div>
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The game looks good. It won't blow your mind visually but it's still quite pretty.</div>
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<b>Sound</b></div>
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A lot of the staple tunes of the 'New' series return here and...some I feel have overstayed their welcome a bit. Some of the new tracks are quite wonderful though. A particular standout is the world map music for Peach's Castle, which is a sinister-sounding remix of the castle's background music in Mario 64.</div>
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Just like the graphics, the music is exactly what you'd expect to find. It's good, but aside from one particular track, it's not super memorable.</div>
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Yoshi appears in this game and, a la Super Mario World, hitching a ride adds percussion to the music. In a nice added bonus, there are Baby Yoshis in the game as well who, when held, add harmonious choir to the music.</div>
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The sound effects are the exact same as the previous 'New' titles.</div>
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I will say that finishing a world made me smile every time because it ends with a dramatic off-screen explosion of the boss's airship followed by a simple, goofy "YAY!" from Mario.</div>
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<b>Presentation</b></div>
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The same super basic story of all traditional Mario games. Bowser kidnaps Princess, Mario must save Princess by traversing multiple lands.</div>
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There's a bit of very slight formula alteration such as the final castle being Peach's own castle after being seized and altered by Bowser and the koopalings (as opposed to it being a castle that already belonged to them). Additionally, the final boss of each world is fought on their own airship which you board after completing their respective castle. These have no effect on the gameplay, but it's nice to seem some minor alterations to how things are approached in what is admittedly a very tired series.</div>
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Once again, we're given the Mario 3-style World Map, but certain hidden levels allow for considerable sequence breaking.</div>
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Presentation is all around appropriate and pleasing.</div>
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<b>Gameplay</b></div>
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New Super Mario Bros. U, of course, plays just like all of the games in the New Super Mario Bros. series. No drastic controls or physics alterations (none at all, really), and no real surprises.</div>
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The new Flying Squirrel Suit is neat and a welcome addition. It's a well-balanced power-up that's fun to use. I miss when a new Mario game meant more than just 1 new power-up though. Several of the power-ups from the previous titles (such as the Penguin Suit and Propeller Hat) return after completing the game as they can be obtained in the secret Star Road world.</div>
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The game's overall flow is highly reminiscent of Super Mario World, even featuring a highly similar world map, if traversed in a different order. The aforementioned hidden levels introduce new paths, and some levels can be completed in interchangeable orders.</div>
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One thing you're likely to notice coming into this game if you're familiar with the 'New' series, is that this game is immensely more difficult than its 3 predecessors; and I can't begin to explain how welcome of a change that is. The New Super Mario Bros. games prior to U, especially 2 on the 3DS, seriously suffer from a lack of difficulty curve.</div>
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This game also has a very satisfying final boss (New Super Mario Bros. 2, on the other hand, had probably the most disappointing final boss in the entire franchise in my opinion).</div>
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The level design is actually some of the best in Mario history. Nintendo's basically thrown every they have at the wall to see what sticks with the 'New' series, and U seems to have gotten just about everything good.</div>
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Replay value is found in the same Star Coin gimmick as the previous three games. This isn't a bad gimmick in order to extend the longevity of the game, especially when collecting all the Star Coins in a world unlocks a new, high-difficulty level in Star Road, but I'm still strongly yearning to see some more originality in this series. Maybe something along the lines of certain items that are hidden that help build something to get you to Star Road. Or have just one Star Coin per level and have it be a taxing platformer puzzle to get to. Just...<i>something</i> other than the same trick of 3 of them in, more or less, plain sight per level.</div>
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I cannot vouch for the multiplayer as I <strike>have no friends</strike> have yet to try it out. I played New Super Mario Bros. Wii multiplayer rather extensively though, so I imagine it's pretty much the same (with the addition of a 5th player who can create platforms on the Gamepad).</div>
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<b>Verdict</b></div>
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New Super Mario Bros. U is the best game in the 'New' series. It plays exactly like the other games, has the best difficulty curve, has the best level design (in fact, the best level design of traditional Mario games since World), and marginally the best soundtrack and graphics.</div>
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If you're not sick of Mario, this is a very good game to have. If you have not played any of the 'New' Mario games, or have only played 2*, this game is a must-play.</div>
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*Can you tell I'm not happy with NSMB 2 yet? Very bland level design and extremely unsatisfying final boss. All I have to say about that one.</div>
Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-35798640712413292892013-03-17T21:38:00.001-05:002013-03-17T21:38:28.852-05:00I LIIIIIVEIt's been far too long.<br />
Let's keep it simple:<br />
-lack of posting due to work and art commissions taking up most of my time<br />
-little to no activity with games or movies leaving me with almost nothing worth posting to this blog<br />
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So, why am I back now? I am putting notes together to write a review of New Super Mario Bros. U as I just beat the game this morning.<br />
I would have loved to do Rayman Legends but Ubisoft went to delayed it until September for no properly justifiable reason. The demo of that game is available on the Wii U eShop and, in my opinion, it's fantastic and was pretty much the only upcoming Wii U game I was excited for.<br />
I've had considerable Mario burnout after New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the 3DS (a game which I was not very satisfied with) but with no Rayman, my brother recommended me to try out Mario U so I did. He hasn't played as much of the 'New' series as I have but nonetheless I trust his opinion.<br />
It's better than New Super Mario Bros. 2, so it definitely has that going for it. Full review to come.<br />
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In other news, in what little time I had between my current job and the aforementioned commissions, I have been hired by Bardel Entertainment. I'll be starting my first true career job next month and I am, of course, ecstatic about it.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-49930885540582772052013-01-14T02:28:00.000-05:002013-01-14T02:28:18.361-05:00I Know That Voice<div style="text-align: center;">
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So, this is actually old news but I want to mention it nonetheless. I have a lot of love for the world of voice acting and voice actors and actresses themselves. There is an upcoming documentary about the art of voice acting called 'I Know that Voice'. Trailers above and below. Enjoy and please support this movie; words cannot express how excited I am to see it.<br />
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Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-71564361984513235112012-12-10T02:57:00.001-05:002012-12-10T03:13:55.577-05:00Wii U First Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKRnHbHXLEI/UMWIKZMNjgI/AAAAAAAABHI/TfYkEPpML0k/s1600/wii-u-basic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKRnHbHXLEI/UMWIKZMNjgI/AAAAAAAABHI/TfYkEPpML0k/s320/wii-u-basic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So, I honestly had no idea if I was going to bother getting a Wii U anytime soon, or at all really. I was never wowed by it and the most tempting games to me are Scribblenauts Unlimited and Super Smash Bros. "Universe"; both of which are or are going to be 3DS titles as well. However, a few days ago, after receiving some Christmas money from my parents and checking my bank account to see that my last pay was really quite nice, I decided to treat myself to Nintendo's new toy.<br />
Now, when I moved to Vancouver, I didn't bring any of my Wii stuff with me (console, games, controllers) so that does stifle the Wii U experience a bit, particularly because the only game I have at the moment is Nintendo Land. I have since sent for my things so hopefully I'll have a more complete experience soon enough.<br />
You may wonder why I used a picture of the Basic Set and not the considerably superior Deluxe Set. That's because I didn't get a Deluxe one, somewhat to my disappointment, as the Best Buy (3 blocks from where I live, which is awesome by the way) was out of them and I didn't want to wait a week and a half for them to restock. So, rather than go with the package that came with Nintendo Land, I bought the bare bones set and bought the game on top of it.<br />
Also, I bought a TV to go with it, which is a moderately amusing story on its own.*<br />
So, let's just get Nintendo Land out of the way first. As I am hundreds of thousands of miles away from the vast majority of my friends, I've only played single-player ventures so far and only on the Gamepad. Unfortunately, some of the attractions in the virtual theme park are multiplayer-only. Some others, like The Legend of Zelda Battle Quest, have alternate methods of play depending on whether you use a Gamepad or a Wii Remote. For that particular attraction, I wish I had my Wii Remotes here since I'd rather play as the swordsman Link than the archer Link.<br />
I'm not sure what game it's based on, if it even is based on a previous game, but the ninja star throwing game is a lot of fun.<br />
All in all, what I've played of Nintendo Land is not exactly impressive. It's not a bad game by any means but it's not a standout. It's certainly a much nicer tech demo than Wii Sports was, and that's not to say I didn't like Wii Sports (because I did); Nintendo Land is just much more heavily featured. Additionally, I absolutely love the concept of a video game being a virtual theme park with attractions based on its own developer's franchises. I especially like that concept being the premise of a tech demo for a new system, it's just a brilliant idea.<br />
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Now onto the beef of this post: The nightmare that was getting the day one update installed.<br />
If you've paid attention to news on the Wii U, chances are good you already know that there is a mandatory firmware update which the console asks you to download and install right out of the box. What you may not know is that you can skip it during the initial setup, but you'll still need to get it sooner or later.<br />
I skipped it, preferring to play some Nintendo Land before I worried about all the connectivity and bells and whistles and such.<br />
For most people, this update takes about an hour to download, and you can't do anything with the console while it's downloading it. For <b style="font-style: italic;">me, </b>the update took an approximate and an accumulative <b>8 friggin' hours, </b>spanned over 3 days (thankfully the download progress remains when you turn off the console). I'm honestly not sure what's to blame; whether it's the Wii U's wireless hardware or my landlord's router or something else. I know I'm not alone but that I'm also in a minority. Every time I attempted the download, I would get an error message at some point. More often than not, the error would occur before the console had the chance to download any data.<br />
After exploring dozens of potential solutions through Google to no avail, my only option was to manually resume the download each and every time I got an error. You know how sometimes you can look at a shadow cast by a static object on a sunny day, not actually notice the shadow moving because of how slow it is but still notice that it <i>has </i>moved because of outside reference points? That's what watching the progress bar on my Gamepad screen was like. It moved so slowly, when it wasn't being interrupted, that I could not tell when it was and wasn't making progress.<br />
This equated to very considerable amounts of my free time spent keeping a close watch on my Gamepad screen so as to be able to resume the download ASAP every time it failed to hold a connection.<br />
Basically, prior to the update and speaking strictly in terms of user convenience, my Wii U was a pile of crap.<br />
The happy ending: Once the update <i style="font-weight: bold;">finally</i> finishes, it addresses all of these issues. Following the initial update, the Wii U can download software in the background allowing you to continue on with whatever else (welcome to 2005, Nintendo). The downloads will also automatically resume after connection breaks. And, as a bonus, there's also an option that tells the Wii U to turn off once all downloads are finished, meaning you can comfortably go to work/sleep while leaving it on to finish.<br />
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Alright, now let's do some bullet points.<br />
Things I like:<br />
-The Gamepad is very light-weight. Maybe slightly heavier than a DS and it feels good to hold.<br />
-The Gamepad's camera is <i>not</i> completely abysmal in quality like those of the DSi and 3DS.<br />
-The Gamepad has a headphone jack. This is sort of a personal perk because I just hate having sound leaking out of my room, especially when my roommates are around. Having a headphone jack right on the controller is of great convenience to me.<br />
-The touch screen is super responsive.<br />
-The Gamepad can be configured to be used as a remote for your TV. It's a pretty basic remote setup, featuring number buttons, channel up/down buttons, volume control and input selection, but it's a very nice feature to have all the same.<br />
-There are a lot of things you can do without having the TV on or at the Wii U's input since a lot of the menu navigation and main action happens on the Gamepad's screen. This means I could be playing some of the Nintendo Land attractions while someone else could be playing, say, Mario All-Stars (as I have both my Wii U and Retro Duo hooked up to the same TV) in the same room.<br />
-The system comes preloaded with placeholders for some useful applications like YouTube, Netflix and the like.<br />
-In addition to move convenient download management, the system update includes a surprisingly fast web browser.<br />
-The web browser has tabbed browsing. <b>The web browser has tabbed browsing!</b><br />
-The Gamepad's battery charger has a very long cord so you shouldn't have any trouble getting continued playtime while charging.<br />
-I have not actually tested this but I can only assume it's true based on hearsay from people who would have no reason to lie about the matter: No more Friend Codes!<br />
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Things I don't like:<br />
-The Gamepad's battery life isn't the greatest.<br />
-The aforementioned hell of getting the system update.<br />
-The very fact that there even was a <i>5 GB system update to download at launch </i>is also pretty damned irritating. The console should have come with that firmware installed if it was going to be available on launch day.<br />
-The misleading 'Close' button in the web browser. I have this exact same issue with the 3DS's browser. When you open the main menu, a 'Close' button comes up. It's all too easy to mistake this for a button that closes the menu. It actually closes the browser. Considering both consoles have a Home button integrated into the hardware which serves the same purpose, this is not only a misleading inclusion but a purposeless one as well.<br />
-Although the browser does have tabbed browsing (yesyesyesyesyes), it does not appear to have a way to open links in new tabs. You appear to have to open a tab first and then bring it to the URL you want. Considering how much use my center click gets when I'm browsing, this is extremely tedious for me.<br />
-While I seem to be alone on this, the impact of a Nintendo console having high definition is completely absent to me. Perhaps it's because the TV I'm using is only 720p, but I'm just not seeing anything that's as beautiful as some of the praise of the system might lead one to believe.<br />
-I want to buy Scribblenauts Unlimited for the Wii U but I already have the 3DS version and they look to be mostly the exact same game. But...but...I just want the Wii U one and I don't know why. This was an easier situation to deal with when it came to games like Sonic Colors where the DS and Wii version were totally different games and buying both was perfectly justifiable.<br />
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In the end, only time will tell but I think I'll end up being happy with the Wii U once the game selection gets going. I loved the Wii despite it's rather minimal selection in worthwhile games so I guess I'm not all that picky.<br />
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*I had never used the HDMI port on my laptop. For some reason, I honestly assumed it was an input port and I brought the Wii U home expecting to be able to display it through my trusty Toshiba. Shortly, I realized my error and promptly rushed back to Best Buy to get the cheapest HD TV I could find.<br />
Incidentally, I had a similar occurrence when I first bought a Wii. The TV in my bedroom at the time was a rather old hand-me-down from my parents and didn't have AV cable ports. After bringing the Wii home and noticing I couldn't hook it up, my mother and myself took a trip to...I forget where exactly...and I got a standard definition, 20" brick of a TV that served me relatively well these last 6 years.<br />
But hey, now that I have a TV at my new home, I can finally play my Retro Duo here! I can actually play my legitimate copy of Super Butouden 3! That's just so cool to me.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-68756868388686080392012-11-20T23:45:00.000-05:002012-11-20T23:45:40.561-05:00Link Figma Inbound<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g8CUy2qQ8Kw/UKxW_gfK99I/AAAAAAAABGo/ETSCZMa43g0/s1600/0fbde70d5c4744ccef461061f3193fd0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g8CUy2qQ8Kw/UKxW_gfK99I/AAAAAAAABGo/ETSCZMa43g0/s320/0fbde70d5c4744ccef461061f3193fd0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Well, after a frightening month of financial troubles, I'm back on my feet. I now have a partial management position at a local Mark's and am pretty damn happy with the job. My first order of business after being hired was to celebrate by preordering this beauty of a toy.<br />
The Japanese Figma line is soon to release a highly articulated figure of Link from The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. If you've seen the review I did on Skyward Sword several months back, you know I absolutely loved it and absolutely love the Zelda series in general.<br />
The fact that this even exists, along with the previously released Figma of Samus from the Metroid series, is quite shocking. Nintendo usually keeps a very tight grip on their licenses and thus getting figures of their characters with even decent articulation is almost a lost cause.<br />
Although, Nintendo might actually be letting up a bit since not only have their characters gone to the Figma line, but a few also appeared in the recent movie Wreck-It Ralph. A fantastic movie by the way but I'll get to that some other time.<br />
For now, this is just a heads up that this thing exists and it looks awesome. Link is supposed to be released sometime next month and I believe he is still available for preorder on BigBadToyStore.com. Samus is already released but I don't know offhand if she's still in stock anywhere.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-771552481691097812012-10-26T17:13:00.002-05:002012-10-26T17:13:52.327-05:00TMNT 2012 Thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QWpp8tXEbaQ/UIrlR9TAjqI/AAAAAAAABEo/E4kt8R0i5F0/s1600/TMNT-2012-TQ-600x378.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QWpp8tXEbaQ/UIrlR9TAjqI/AAAAAAAABEo/E4kt8R0i5F0/s320/TMNT-2012-TQ-600x378.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
You may be aware that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have recently received their newest television revival in the form of a computer animated cartoon on Nickelodeon. I've never been a really big fan of the franchise but I've always had some interest in it so I decided to give it a shot. I'm now caught up with all 5 episodes that have aired and have some thoughts I'd like to share.<br />
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What I like:<br />
-The animation. It's good. It's skillfully done, it follows all of the principals most of the time and, when it doesn't, it's clearly intentional; dropping fluid animation specifically for the sake of comedic emphasis, and it works.<br />
-The turtles' designs. For the first time, all 4 turtles have totally unique bodies; they aren't just recolours of the same model. They each have their own height and body type, and each part of their body is uniquely molded. They even have character specific battle scars, such as Raph having a prominent crack his left pectoral shell.<br />
-The stories. The 2003 series hit a really good balance of still being a goofy Saturday morning kid's cartoon on one hand, while still treating it's audience with a bit of respect and having a lot of well-written story arcs. So far, the new series seems to be doing that pretty good as well. There haven't been any real <i>arcs</i> per se, but the episodic stories are well-told.<br />
-The voice acting. The first time I watched the 2003 series, I was really thrown off by Raphael's voice; seeing one of the Ninja Turtles and hearing a voice that deep coming out of him was really strange. I quickly got used to it and ultimately really liked it in the end, but that initial awkwardness still stuck in my mind. That's not the case in this show. Each of the turtles sound very much like what you would expect to hear out of their appearance; Raph isn't super-gruff but he's still a hothead and still sounds the part. Donatello, played by Rob Paulsen, is a particular standout; he's fantastic in the part.<br />
-The character interactions. While exaggerated in the manner of most children's cartoons, the banter between the turtles feels very genuine.<br />
-Some of the humour. There's a couple gags I'm not fond of (more on that below) but there are a handful of jokes in the show so far that are actually pretty funny.<br />
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What I don't like:<br />
-The villains. 3 of these first five episodes have centered on a group of villains called The Krang. If you're familiar with the 80's cartoon, and certain parts of the 2003 cartoon, to a lesser extent, you'll recognize that as the name of a single villain from them. In the 80's cartoon, Krang was a secondary villain to Shredder. He was an alien-brain-thing with a humanoid robot body. The Krang in the new series are a large organization of alien-brain-things with humanoid robot bodies.<br />
As for why I don't like them...they're boring. They have an overly robotic way of talking (things like 'We must go to the place that is not the place that we are in because it is the place that we must be.') which, while I understand that it's meant for child-oriented comedic effect, gets really annoying.<br />
-Mikey's running gag of naming villains and other things. 5 episodes in and this <i>exact</i> <i>same, </i>lame joke has been done 3 times:<br />
Mikey: "It's Spider Bites!"<br />
Others: "..."<br />
Mikey: "Y'know, 'cause he's a spider and he bites--"<br />
Others: "We get it!"<br />
That's not the exact dialogue but the point is it's not funny, it makes me cringe, and it's a recurring theme.<br />
-Anime expressions. While it's not super-exaggerated, the turtles will often times adopt certain expressions that are staples of anime in response to some situations (usually in response to insults or fear). I don't mind the concept of their facial features changing for the sake of expressions like that, it just bothers me that I can almost pinpoint exactly what anime the animators were watching when they decided to include those expressions (hint: it's Naruto). If they had been more original with the (and I hate to use this term) cartoony expressions, it would have been better.<br />
-April's design. Not much to say about her, she just looks awful. Her design looks like something rejected from the early production stages of a Pixar film. She barely looks like something I'm supposed to think is a human being. I'd say it couldn't be much worse but then I looked at her upcoming toy...<br />
-The theme song. Uuuugh. The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" chant sounds just fine but the rap interludes are abysmal.<br />
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If the first 5 episodes are a good sample to go on (and they probably should be), it's a pretty good show and I think I'll try to keep up with it. As of now, I think the 2003 series will probably remain my favourite but the new show definitely has the potential to change my mind. If you haven't already, give it a shot.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-51488320454967370772012-10-19T23:02:00.000-05:002012-10-19T23:02:28.389-05:00Lickle Samson!I want to talk about a game I recently discovered...<br />
Lickle! I mean, Little Samson! I mean, Lickle Samson!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6s8gsJcPytQ/UIIe5aCuvoI/AAAAAAAABEE/gEqkHt92YIU/s1600/SamsonNES.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6s8gsJcPytQ/UIIe5aCuvoI/AAAAAAAABEE/gEqkHt92YIU/s320/SamsonNES.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
Samle Litson is an NES platformer from 1992 and basically was made by a team of programmers who had recently left Capcom.<br />
I'm not going to waste any time building things up; this game is amazing. Pixel-perfect platform, beautifully-done 8-bit graphics, super-polished controls, wonderful level design and great diversity in the gameplay. You take control of 4 separate characters, the titular Little Samson/Lickle, Gamm the Golem, Kikira the Dragon and K.O. ...the <b>mouse!</b><br />
Each of the 4 characters has unique abilities and you'll be guaranteed to use all 4 of them in any given level (following the 4 intro levels where you have to play as them separately). The levels are all planned in a way that each character has a section where they're the best choice.<br />
Lickle can jump high, shoot magical bells (..yeah), and climb on walls and ceilings. K.O. can also climb walls and ceilings, move through small passageways, and, despite having the least health, has the strongest attack: Bombs. The <i>mouse</i> uses <i>bombs</i>. Aw yeah.<br />
Gamm moves really slow but can walk on spikes, has the most health, and can attack upward and (when jumping) downward. Kikira can fly for about 5 seconds (similar to Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2), shoot fireballs in spurts of 3 that 'swish' upwards and charge her fireball up to deal more damage.<br />
Throughout the game, you will find health bar upgrades that you can use to extend each character's life. Each character has his/her own max health bar length so, even maxed out, the characters are still pretty balanced.<br />
There's a lot to say about the game but to keep it simple, this game is a ton of fun. Play it.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-42451311517831789872012-10-06T02:05:00.000-05:002012-10-06T02:05:53.476-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6ahqGh_u58Y/UG9NKw-5oyI/AAAAAAAABCs/_jwov1LCyFw/s1600/AttackBO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6ahqGh_u58Y/UG9NKw-5oyI/AAAAAAAABCs/_jwov1LCyFw/s320/AttackBO.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<b>Attack of the Saiyans</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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This one's an interesting outing. Attack of the Saiyans is a
turn-based JRPG, like Legend of the Super Saiyan, only unlike Legend
of the Super Saiyan, it's actually quite good. The game begins with
the Piccolo Jr. Saga and ends with the defeat of Nappa and Vegeta on
Earth; making it among the games that cover the least of the anime's
plot.</div>
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Visually, the game has some of the most stunning 2D environments
Dragon Ball games have ever had. The overworld character sprites
aren't quite as impressive; they get the job done just fine but
they're very tiny and sometimes seem rather out of scale with the
locations around them. Thankfully, the in-battle sprites are very
nicely done.</div>
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I don't have much to say about the sound because I don't remember any
of it; I most often play handhelds with the volume turned down for
various reasons.</div>
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But of course, it all boils down to gameplay. Attack of the Saiyans
takes a lot of notes from various successful RPG franchises (Final
Fantasy and Pokémon being the most apparent) and adds a lot of its
own stuff too and very little of it feels wasted. The battle system
has attractive and easily understod presentation, it's streamlined
and efficient and there was definitely a lot of thought put into it.</div>
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Traversing the overworld is similar to Legacy of Goku II and Buu's
Fury where certain locations have full maps that you walk around but
you also have to fly from landmark to landmark over a simplified
world map. The game doesn't offer a lot of minigames (if any, don't
remember at the moment) so there isn't a huge variety in the kinds of
things you get to do but what is there is usually pretty fun.</div>
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My only major gripe with the gameplay mechanics is the lack of touch
screen support. In-battle, your options are displayed on the touch
screen so it only makes sense that touching them would select them,
right? Just like how it is in the DS Pokémon titles? Alas, nope.</div>
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I greatly dislike this because if there's one thing that turn-based
JRPG's desperately need to consider, it's how to make their battle
systems as streamlined and efficient as possible. Plain and simple,
scrolling through text box list after text box list with the D-pad
and A button is <b>not fun</b>.</div>
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The saving grace is that the battle system isn't based around text
box lists but instead takes the Lufia approach by having the four
basic options in each of the four directions on the D-pad. Also like
Lufia, and this I consider a fault, is that it still requires you to
press A after you've pressed the direction. I know this seems like a
minor gripe but if the options were just quick-keyed to the
directions on the D-pad, it would help the pacing of the battles and
keep the longer encounters from seeming to drag too much. Of course,
quick-keying wouldn't matter if they would have just let you <i><b>touch</b></i><b>
the options that are displayed on the </b><i><b>touch </b></i><b>screen.</b></div>
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But I digress; as I said, Attack of the Saiyans is a good game. It's
an all-around solid RPG with mostly very minor flaws.</div>
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I've always found irony in the game's title difference between Japan
and North America. In Japan, this was the first game released under
the 'Dragon Ball Kai' title, but it came out over here before Kai
began airing for us. So, the title was reverted to Dragon Ball Z.
The irony is in the fact that the game includes almost all of the
filler from Z which Kai existed to remove; scenes including Goku
falling off of Snake Way and getting stuck in Hell, his encounter
with Princess Snake, etc. Additionally, the game also <i>adds</i>
some entirely original filler. So despite being a 'Dragon Ball Kai'
title, it goes out of it's way to be more like Z than Kai.</div>
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On the anime side of things, I don't like filler, but I don't mind it
in video games; especially RPG's; because it's an opportunity to
provide more gameplay to the player. Although, some of the new
filler makes absolutely no sense to the point that the game creates a
large plothole.</div>
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Among these new scenarios is an actual adventure to gather the dragon
balls and wish Goku back to life (which, even in Z, happened
off-screen). Here's the kicker: Goku joins your team on this
adventure. Baba allows him to return from the afterlife in order to
help the other Z-fighters collect the dragon balls.</div>
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Think about that for a second.</div>
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Goku is brought back to life so he can help his friends gather the
items that will bring him back to life.</div>
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OK, so it is a temporary resurrection but if that was an option, why
bother in the first place? Why not just bring him back when Vegeta
and Nappa arrive? Plus, if he's already come back once then he
should already know that he has to run back along Snake Way when he's
wished back.</div>
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So yeah, very major plothole. Thankfully, this is a video game and
not a movie, so a plothole like that doesn't make the whole product
bad.</div>
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Following the original gathering of the dragon balls, if you wish you
can gather them again (ignoring the canon a bit where the dragon
balls turn to stone for a year after every use) and make a wish from
a list of options. You can do this multiple times until you've made
every wish you have the option to make. Among these is to wish to
battle the 'Ultimate Enemy' who turns out to be Legendary Super
Saiyan Broly. Logically speaking, the strongest evil character to
appear in Dragon Ball Z is Buu, but considering Broly is both a major
fan-favourite and a Saiyan (keeping in theme with the game's title),
I can understand why he was chosen for the “ultimate enemy”. And
he absolutely lives up to the title. Even if your party is totally
prepared to defeat Vegeta (the proper last boss of the game), Broly
will be strong enough to take out any party member with one hit.
Your team needs to be prepared to obliterate Vegeta about 30 times
over if you want to be able to defeat Broly in this game.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pzFn9J1iANw/UG9QAmNcWvI/AAAAAAAABDQ/xOS0rVw80BI/s1600/260px-Wii_console.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pzFn9J1iANw/UG9QAmNcWvI/AAAAAAAABDQ/xOS0rVw80BI/s1600/260px-Wii_console.png" /></a></div>
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And finally, we move on to Dragon Ball games I've played for the Wii.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--9RPlqbCSd4/UG9QaW0ED_I/AAAAAAAABDY/D9yEl61UAvU/s1600/ten2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--9RPlqbCSd4/UG9QaW0ED_I/AAAAAAAABDY/D9yEl61UAvU/s200/ten2.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gMcXi4BixOs/UG9QbaTEBrI/AAAAAAAABDg/Sp97hNvps3s/s1600/ten3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gMcXi4BixOs/UG9QbaTEBrI/AAAAAAAABDg/Sp97hNvps3s/s200/ten3.jpg" width="143" /></a><br />
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b><br /></b>
<b> Budokai Tenkaichi 2 & Budokai Tenkaichi 3</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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I'm putting these two games together because they're basically the
same game with a difference in character roster. As I already
mentioned, Ultimate Battle 22 began the unfortunate trend of fans
putting demands for more characters ahead of demanding better
gameplay and that culminates to its peak in the Tenkaichi series.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Well over 130 characters and it doesn't matter a damn bit which one
you choose because they all play the same...well, so long as you
don't choose Yamcha if your opponent is a Saibaman.</div>
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On that note, that's the one thing I do really enjoy about these
games; the easter eggs. Yamcha is instantly defeated if his enemy is
a Saibaman and uses their self-destruct attack on him. At the same
time though, that particular easter egg is one of those things that
breaks the game in a way that makes it a very poor choice for
competitive play. Imagine tournaments being held with this game
having to ban a character like Saibaman because of that.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Additional fun easter eggs include certain versus character
interactions (such as when #18 and Zangya are pitted against each
other), and dialogue that occurs on the menu screens when left for
too long (such as Nappa asking Vegeta if turning Super Saiyan would
grow out his goatee).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But the actual <i>game</i> portions of the game are just soulless.
At least in the Budokai games; specifically 3; there was clear,
sincere care and effort put into creating a fun fighting game. The
Tenkaichi games, while I do have some fun playing them, feel like
they've made no effort to hide the fact that they are shameless
cash-ins on a successful franchise.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Visually, the Tenkaichi games are OK. The toon-shading + rendered
outlines looks pretty much like the anime most of the time, excepting
occasional clipping errors and jagged geometry. The character
portraits on the character select screen bug me; they're vectorized
2D drawings but they're drawn in a way to be more accurate to the
game models than the actual manga or anime; by which I mean they're
drawn with that same jagged geometry.</div>
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Once again, we have lazy ports graphics-wise because Tenkaichi 2 and
3 are both PS2 titles and have no visual updates on the Wii despite
the fact that the Wii is capable of better.</div>
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Tenkaichi 3 has different controls than 2 on the Wii, mostly
improving the motion control and eliminating some of the pointless
inputs. For instance, in 2, you had to move the nunchuk forward to
dash while moving the control stick alone, no matter to what degree,
just floated slowly in whichever direction. In 3, the slow floating
occurs when you tilt the control stick slightly and dashing occurs
when you tilt it all the way (totally removing having to move the
nunchuk to dash). This makes sense since you'll very rarely want to
move slow anyway.</div>
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Unfortunately, I don't really have much else to praise about these
games. They're just very dull experiences and, looking back, I have
no idea why I bought both of them.</div>
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I will however say that being able to run straight through mountains
as any of the giant characters can be a lot of fun and was especially
humourous when I did so as Janemba's first form surprising my brother
whom I was playing against at the time.</div>
<br />Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-56552227528296230992012-10-05T02:01:00.000-05:002012-10-05T02:01:20.980-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 9So, unfortunately, I don't have any screenshots to compliment the remainder of the games I'll be talking about. On the bright side, we're almost finished with this retrospective. I'd guess 1 or 2 more posts after this one will wrap it up. I actually had quite a bit of fun doing this so I might choose another franchise to do the same with in the near future (top choice would be Zelda but retrospectives on that franchise have been done to death).<br />
Well, on with Part 9: DS Games Part 1!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3wADAHrsmhU/UG6BXXBWRGI/AAAAAAAABBw/JGs3Mn1sS0s/s1600/nintendo-ds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3wADAHrsmhU/UG6BXXBWRGI/AAAAAAAABBw/JGs3Mn1sS0s/s320/nintendo-ds.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Incidentally, I still think the original DS looks way cooler than the Lite.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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DS
games are, refreshingly, less of a mixed bag when it comes to Dragon
Ball games. None of the ones I've played are outright terrible games
and some of them are even stand-outs in their respective genres.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i2KS4i2NGxY/UG6CJw6GwKI/AAAAAAAABB4/R0070VFbmcY/s1600/dbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i2KS4i2NGxY/UG6CJw6GwKI/AAAAAAAABB4/R0070VFbmcY/s320/dbo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Erm, Puar? What are you looking at?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
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<b>Origins</b></div>
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This is one of those stand-outs. Dragon Ball Origins is similar to
the DS Legend of Zelda titles in that it is controlled (or can be
controlled) entirely with the touch screen. I've always liked this
idea and never understood those who don't (seriously, why would you
want games developed in such a way that totally subverts the entire
point of being on their respective system?). Anyway, Origins is a
pretty good game, and one of the best-looking games the DS has to
offer. It is one of very few games on the DS that uses 3D graphics
and doesn't look awful.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The game is hard to categorize into a specific genre since it blends
the action adventure elements of the aforementioned Zeldas with
straight-up platforming style progression. You do traverse somewhat
open environments in all directions, obtain skills and upgrades and
battle enemies in real-time combat. The game is also separated into
stages and boss battles.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
All there really is to say about it is it controls well, it looks
good, it has a well-put-together difficulty curve and it's fun to
play. Check it out if you get the chance.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
My only slight disappointment with the game is that it only covers up
to the first World Tournament saga, meanwhile a Dragon Ball title on
the previous generation handheld (Advanced Adventure) covered far
more.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p3zgm0kbbF8/UG6EV2PSpiI/AAAAAAAABCI/RhD_zAajMRM/s1600/dbo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p3zgm0kbbF8/UG6EV2PSpiI/AAAAAAAABCI/RhD_zAajMRM/s320/dbo2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now with 50% less upskirt-looking cats and 50% more blackface!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
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<b>Origins 2</b></div>
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I've only played a demo of Dragon Ball Origins 2 but all in all, it
seems like more of the same. That's not a bad thing and there were
some minor tweaks that made the controls a little better and added
variety to the attacks. If you care about having the whole story and
are a fan of the first Origins, I'd say go ahead and pick up Origins
2. Keep in mind that you are almost buying the same game again, just
with a story mode that covers the Red Ribbon Army saga to the King
Piccolo saga, along with some minor control tweaks. That doesn't
make it a bad game, but it does make it an underwhelming sequel.</div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lvPmDec0yLo/UG6CmiiPS5I/AAAAAAAABCA/KFvLtcpXPLQ/s1600/SSW2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lvPmDec0yLo/UG6CmiiPS5I/AAAAAAAABCA/KFvLtcpXPLQ/s320/SSW2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The American boxart is very lame in comparison so I'm using the Japanese here</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
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<b>Supersonic Warriors 2</b></div>
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The sequel to one of my favourites of the Dragon Ball fighting games.
I have mixed feelings about this title as it adds a lot but also
drops some of the things that were strong points in the first game.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The character roster is more diverse and the character select is more
streamlined. However, as mentioned in Part 8, even the game's Free
Play mode lacks the feature of being able to build teams that have
multiples of the same character. In fact, it even locks you out from
having multiples of a character even if they show as separate
characters on the character select. For instance, if you have one of
Kid Gohan or “Teen” Gohan (quotation marks used as he is not a
teenager) or Adult Gohan on a team, you can't have either of the
other two. Come on, game, I want a team of all 3 Gohans!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
One of my favourite things to do in the first game was to face 3 of
the strongest Vegetas with a team of 1 base-form Goku. It was a
great way to create some challenges for yourself and it's gone from
the sequel.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The graphics are 'theoretically' improved. The sprites of returning
characters are the same and the new introductions keep in consistent
style. The backgrounds are actually 3D rendered environments this
time, but I actually find myself preferring the backgrounds of the
previous title. It might be because the 3D backgrounds occasionally
showcase the DS's limitations with jagged geometry and low-resolution
textures, but I also find the backgrounds of the first game just a
lot more appealing to look at; they seemed more colourful and lively. Honestly, I find several of the graphics, especially character portraits, to be...'over-streamlined' if there can be such a thing; much of the charm they had in the first game isn't really there anymore.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The story mode feels very uninspired. Once again, every character
has their own, unique, 'What-If' story, however this time around very
few of the villains get a story where they win. The stories just
barely stray from the actual canon and often times will tell you that
your character lost a battle regardless of whether or not you
actually lost the preceding fight. Compared to the predecessor, this
story mode severely lacks originality.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The controls, thanks to the additional buttons on the DS, are a bit
more efficient. It isn't a huge improvement but certain things
like special moves take less awkward button inputs now. In the first
game, special moves were performed by holding R and pressing A+B;
holding R was sort of a toggle into energy attack mode. Now, special
attacks are a simple press of A+X.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Additionally, there are Team Attacks now. If you have your energy
maxed out and you have a pair characters on your team that have a
team attack, you can do so by a button on the touch screen. Some of
these attacks are really cool, Cell's and Frieza's being my personal
favourite.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Supersonic Warriors 2 improves upon the first game but also
downgrades and does so in such a way that it ends up being just as
good of a game. On the whole it's not an improvement nor is it
worse. It's just somewhat different.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Still, both are good games. Go for either one of the two.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Next Time: The Finale! The remaining DS title and Wii games.</div>
<br />
<br />
Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-44699331866058800822012-10-04T02:07:00.000-05:002012-10-04T14:42:45.187-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 8<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O6Dzbe7iyXE/UG0j4MiUI4I/AAAAAAAAA-U/FNRWDwicbdQ/s1600/TranTitle.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O6Dzbe7iyXE/UG0j4MiUI4I/AAAAAAAAA-U/FNRWDwicbdQ/s400/TranTitle.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Transformation</b></div>
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I think I'm going to go cry in the corner now.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1UGfJsV7Kx8/UG0mEJTIb_I/AAAAAAAAA-c/VA4msx4tfCA/s1600/Tran+Gameplay+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1UGfJsV7Kx8/UG0mEJTIb_I/AAAAAAAAA-c/VA4msx4tfCA/s200/Tran+Gameplay+2.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TJx08L6x9ec/UG0mErYUJUI/AAAAAAAAA-k/OnkfTDxXTbk/s1600/Tran+Gameplay.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TJx08L6x9ec/UG0mErYUJUI/AAAAAAAAA-k/OnkfTDxXTbk/s200/Tran+Gameplay.PNG" width="200" /></a> I do not think the standard beat'em-up genre has aged very well.
Spider-Man Separation Anxiety was one of the games I played most in
my childhood and...today I just get bored playing it for anymore than
a few minutes. Ditto with Double Dragon, ditto with River City
Ransom. Certain exceptions come in the form of BattleToads and, as
much as I hate to admit it, The Death and Return of Superman (the
latter of which being probably the best 16-bit era beat'em-up I've
played despite being very hard from the get go...and I hate
Superman).<br />
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So, the thing is, I already don't like the genre of Dragon Ball GT:
Transformation. But even if I did, I can tell you with relative
certainty that I would still absolutely despise it.</div>
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Transformation is beyond bad. It's seriously like Legacy of Goku all
over again. It oozes design choices, gameplay mechanics,
presentation and graphics that I can't believe are part of an
official product. The character sprites seriously look like they
were drawn in MS Paint by people who were new to computers.</div>
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Although I guess some of the environments look OK.</div>
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The fact that this game was eventually released on a dual-game cart
with Buu's Fury is just insulting. The first two Legacy of Goku
games saw a similar release and, as insulting as that is, at least it
makes a little more sense with both games being of the same series
and genre.</div>
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I'm only going to waste two more words here: <b>Stay away.</b></div>
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<b>Taiketsu</b></div>
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<i>Uuuuuugh.</i></div>
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Do I really need to say anything about this game? Watch any gameplay
footage of it and you can see in a few seconds that it's just
terrible.</div>
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The physics lack any polish whatsoever, the pacing is awkward, and
the mechanics are very basic and generic leaving effectively no
reason for this to be a Dragon Ball Z game. You don't even fly or
see transformed states (such as Super Saiyans) in this game unless
it's part of a special move.</div>
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The graphics are especially awful. The backgrounds are poor renders
of bad 3D models and the character sprites are even worse renders of
even worse 3D models; also very, <b>very </b>poorly animated. Every
character looks like they're suffering from neck pain in this game.<br />
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This game feels like it was built with an alpha build of Fighter
Maker 95.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DrqlXRXTr_g/UG0ng7hHWkI/AAAAAAAAA_M/DFWokMiIZHQ/s1600/Tai+Winner.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DrqlXRXTr_g/UG0ng7hHWkI/AAAAAAAAA_M/DFWokMiIZHQ/s200/Tai+Winner.PNG" width="200" /></a> Oh, and I absolutely despise how the advertising for this game
boasted it as the first Dragon Ball Z game to feature Broly as a
playable character. That's a lie and you know it Webfoot! Just
because Super Butouden 2 didn't see a North American release does not
mean it doesn't exist!</div>
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I will say the game does have some OK extras including a screenshot
gallery, character bios and the like. Still, extras have no bearing
on whether a not a game is good. This game is definitely not good.
Not even close.</div>
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The only reason I own this game is because it was a birthday present
from my high school sweetheart and I have a vice about returning or
selling gifts.</div>
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<b>Supersonic
Warriors</b></div>
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Ah! A saving grace!</div>
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Now, my brother plays several fighting games professionally, as do
several of his friends. Speaking with them, I've been informed that
Supersonic Warriors is not a great game for competitive play due to
game-breaking maneuvers and some blatantly overpowered moves.
However, I do not think that should make or break the game for you; I
still think it's a great game, and you will probably never play
anything else quite like it (except maybe the DS sequel).<br />
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Somewhat in the vain of Legends, Supersonic Warriors is a tag team
fighting game that's entirely designed around air combat. Unlike
Legends, it's very good.</div>
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Visually, the game's just under the best-looking of the respective
handheld's library. The physics are just fine; in fact, since the
fighting all takes place in free-range flying, certain physics like
gravity are rarely even an issue. The controls are responsive and
easily understandable and the gameplay is very straightforward.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qPkhzeogko/UG0qNnG9pKI/AAAAAAAABAE/qo4RIhm-yCw/s1600/SSW+Story+3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qPkhzeogko/UG0qNnG9pKI/AAAAAAAABAE/qo4RIhm-yCw/s200/SSW+Story+3.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CiqYzrVhH0I/UG0qMSgiYFI/AAAAAAAAA_0/yzXWEWJ9cTE/s1600/SSW+Gameplay+3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CiqYzrVhH0I/UG0qMSgiYFI/AAAAAAAAA_0/yzXWEWJ9cTE/s200/SSW+Gameplay+3.PNG" width="200" /></a>Much like any of the Dragon Ball fighting games, you have physical
attacks, fireballs, and special energy attacks. This time around,
your special attacks are not determined by unique button combinations
but by your orientation to your opponent while all specials use the
same button input; it's somewhat Smash Bros.-like in that sense
(where B is your special attack button and what special is performed
depends on the direction you press).</div>
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Certain game mechanics can actually be used to pull off some of the
more flashy maneuvers seen in the anime as well. For example, you
can actually land a strong hit against an opponent, dash behind them
and land another strong hit, but you do it manually. This kind of
move in just about any of the other fighting games would be automatic
as part of a special combo, but here you actually get to really <i>do
</i>it yourself.<br />
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The character roster is quite large so I won't be listing it off.
This game features a free-play mode in which you can have teams of
any combination of 3 characters, including multiples of the same
characters; a feature unfortunately missing from the sequel.</div>
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One of the overpowered special moves that stops this game from being
a top pick for competitive play is Frieza's Death Ball. This is
Frieza's 'above the opponent' special which he fires towards the
ground. If this attack <i>misses</i>, it's actually worse for
Frieza's opponent because it starts a timer (90 seconds if I recall
correctly). When the count down finishes, the stage explodes and
Frieza wins. Obviously, Frieza can still lose if the opponent
defeats him before the timer runs out; the balancing issue comes from
the fact that Frieza is one of the faster characters in the game. It
is very easy for Frieza to out-maneuver other characters and just
wait-out the timer. This makes the best option for the opponent to
intentionally be hit by the Death Ball, which causes considerable
damage.<br />
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The story mode is actually a collection of 'What-If' stories assigned
to each character. Depending on what character you choose, you are
treated to a story that deviates from the anime to a variable degree
in such a way that it makes that particular character the victor over
most, if not all, of his or her opponents. This means that villain
story modes will actually conclude with the villain succeeding.</div>
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Personally, my favourite story is Piccolo's. Near the end, Piccolo
uses the dragon balls to revive King Piccolo and fuse with him to
make him strong enough to defeat Buu. <i>That</i> is really cool.</div>
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If I had to make one complaint with this game, it would be wasted
potential in the character roster. It <i>is</i> a large roster but
every character has 3 'forms' and for several of them, all 3 forms
are the same appearance despite the fact that those characters had
multiple forms in the show. For example, all 3 of Cell's forms in
this game appear as Perfect Cell. In a sense, I could understand
leaving out his first form, then having his second form, Perfect Cell
and Super Perfect Cell, but to have all 3 of his stages be Perfect
Cell just seems nonsensical. Simlarly, Buu's forms are Fat Buu, Super Buu, and a stronger Super Buu despite the obvious choice that could have been made of Kid Buu.</div>
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I feel like I could go on for a good while about why I really like
this game but I'll just give a closing statement now. Supersonic
Warriors is very unique and a lot of fun. That's all the reason
anyone should need to play any game.</div>
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<b>Advanced
Adventure</b></div>
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After all the crappy games I've talked about so far, I am elated to
arrive at this one. I'm just going to say it right at the beginning:
Advanced Adventure is a great game. No. It's a <i>really</i> great
game. It is a beautiful stand-out in the entire action/platformer
genre.</div>
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If you've ever wondered what a Dragon Ball game would be like with
the amount of care and polish that goes into classics of the genre
such as Mega Man X, here's your answer. This game looks great, plays
great, sounds great, it's a must-have for any fan of both Dragon Ball
and video games and I strongly recommend it even to people who are
only fans of either one of the two.<br />
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Playing this game, you can just feel the amount of care that went
into every aspect of it. The pacing of the movement, the gravity,
height and arc of your jumps, the sound effects and animations for
every last attack, it's all just perfectly put together. It's easily
one of the best games the Game Boy Advance has to offer.<br />
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Impressively, Advanced Adventure tackles almost the entire Dragon
Ball anime (i.e. not Z or GT), starting right from the Emperor Pilaf
arc and going all the way to the final confrontation with King
Piccolo. And speaking of confrontations, this game has a unique
fighting game-esque battle system for the major boss fights which,
after completing the main adventure, is unlocked with a
character-select to be played as its own separate mini-game. The
system reminds me of the Super Gokuden games except far, <i>far</i>
superior (read: it actually makes sense).</div>
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Advanced Adventure is a very easy game to play, all of the controls
are totally straight-forward and the few tutorial-style tips you get
are never overly intrusive (a problem all too common in modern
games). Easy to play does not mean easy to master or beat though.
There is a pretty strong difficulty curve going through the game and,
especially playing on Hard mode, the game will tax your ability to
time every move you make.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HUf2gZ_JxTU/UG0tVlbGMwI/AAAAAAAABBE/rSectIfeSuw/s1600/AA+Gameplay+4.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HUf2gZ_JxTU/UG0tVlbGMwI/AAAAAAAABBE/rSectIfeSuw/s200/AA+Gameplay+4.PNG" width="200" /></a><br />
There's a bit of arcade-style beat'em-up influence in this game as
well with certain sections of a stage locking you in place until you
defeat swarms of enemies. These are, in my opinion, the one weak
point of the game but they only just barely overstay their welcome.<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mayf1lXVAik/UG0tWHsnkwI/AAAAAAAABBM/n0kawZ76LcA/s1600/AA+Gameplay+5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mayf1lXVAik/UG0tWHsnkwI/AAAAAAAABBM/n0kawZ76LcA/s200/AA+Gameplay+5.PNG" width="200" /></a>
Goku has a huge variety of attacks at his disposal and progressing
through the game builds onto his abilities. You progressively get
longer basic combos and strengthen the Kamehameha.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The game, again, looks great. Where Hyper Dimension is one of the
greatest achievements in pixel art that features detailed
pixel-by-pixel gradients, Advanced Adventure is one of the major
games in pixel art that doesn't, instead opting for more traditional
shading but doing a damn good job of it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The amount of polish in this game is stunning. You really feel
powerful as you plow through enemies. Anybody with an appreciation
for good game design should have no reason to dislike this. It's
impossible to describe just how good it feels when you play Advanced
Adventure.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I have one request to those reading this: <b>Play this game.</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next Time: Nintendo DS Games Part 1</div>
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<br />Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-73580930674894359932012-10-03T02:36:00.000-05:002012-10-03T02:37:19.134-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 7<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VuvvgHk9fzw/UGotIOdTIBI/AAAAAAAAA5k/WuMCwbSq_LU/s1600/395908-nintendo_game_boy_advance_super.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VuvvgHk9fzw/UGotIOdTIBI/AAAAAAAAA5k/WuMCwbSq_LU/s320/395908-nintendo_game_boy_advance_super.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The Game Boy Advance saw quite a few Dragon Ball titles and, to the best of my knowledge, I've played all of them extensively (except for the one based on the Trading Card Game). That said, both today's and tomorrow's posts will almost certainly be exclusively GBA-related. Today's post is all about the Legacy of Goku Trilogy.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mDtR63v_2Eo/UGotiLX09bI/AAAAAAAAA5s/10Rgi26S7X8/s1600/LOGTitle.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mDtR63v_2Eo/UGotiLX09bI/AAAAAAAAA5s/10Rgi26S7X8/s400/LOGTitle.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Aw yeah, just look at that title screen that doesn't even have the title of the game in it. Quality stuff!</span></div>
<b>Legacy
of Goku</b><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Why? Just...why?</div>
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Please keep in mind that I am not targeting either of this game's
sequels with the following comments.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This game sucks. This game really, really, <i>really, </i><b>really,
</b><i><b>really sucks!</b></i></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ep5W69_0QZY/UGot1K46NUI/AAAAAAAAA58/OSc-cWrL0HA/s1600/LOGPortrait1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ep5W69_0QZY/UGot1K46NUI/AAAAAAAAA58/OSc-cWrL0HA/s200/LOGPortrait1.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stockart Gohan Portrait</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<br />
Every time I've played this game, I find myself just dumbfounded that
it's actually an official product. Everything about the game's
design screams unlicensed, Chinese black market game. </div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
Problem #1: Not being able to move on diagonals. This is an action
RPG. Not being able to move on diagonals is a criminally stupid
oversight in this genre. Even in the NES days, this was barely
acceptable (the same oversight is in the first Zelda game* while
other titles like Crystalis and Willow <i>had</i> diagonal movement).<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Yes, I know Zelda is an action/adventure game rather than action RPG, that doesn't change the point of the criticism.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qecjg8qMLnY/UGot013-NzI/AAAAAAAAA50/PdZ0YItv3oY/s1600/LOGGameplay1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qecjg8qMLnY/UGot013-NzI/AAAAAAAAA50/PdZ0YItv3oY/s200/LOGGameplay1.PNG" width="200" /></a><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The collision and hit detection are phenomenally poor. All
of the mountain walls in the game don't stop you from moving until
Goku's sprite is entirely flush with them making him appear to be a
paper cutout. Your punches will often miss when they clearly make
contact and yet do damage when you're blatantly punching beyond the
enemy.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y6fY3dtSQJ0/UGot1g2qOtI/AAAAAAAAA6E/wkG7F9-lpK0/s1600/LOGPortrait3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y6fY3dtSQJ0/UGot1g2qOtI/AAAAAAAAA6E/wkG7F9-lpK0/s200/LOGPortrait3.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poorly Drawn Master Roshi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Additionally, transitions between areas is absolutely
instantaneous which is incredibly jarring. In any competently made
RPG, the transitions when going from one area to the next contain, y'know,
<i>actual transitions.</i> Here, it just pops onto the next
screen.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xWbdu4Q7XT4/UGouth8pjAI/AAAAAAAAA6M/vkT9WQMT4aY/s1600/LOG+How+Do+I+Perspective.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xWbdu4Q7XT4/UGouth8pjAI/AAAAAAAAA6M/vkT9WQMT4aY/s200/LOG+How+Do+I+Perspective.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How Do I Perspective?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Problem #2: The presentation just makes me think of a 12-year-old
using PowerPoint for the first time. Message boxes have a tiny
silver border containing a very gaudy, flat blue. Text is coloured
with an invasive yellow gradient and the font has a cheesy pseudo-futuristic appearance. Character portraits are either
taken from poorly rendered screenshots of the anime, poorly rendered
stockart, or are just outright <i>bad drawings of the character made
for the game</i>; it's not even consistent. Your health and Ki bars
are marked by Comic-sans-ish, blocky 'H' and 'K' letters.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Incidentally, this might be the only game I can think of that
FUNimation is attached to to actually use the term 'Ki' rather than
just translate it to 'energy'.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SXFtyW_VN7s/UGouuCkaZXI/AAAAAAAAA6U/skBbQKGTJ48/s1600/LOG+Near+Dead+from+Dog.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SXFtyW_VN7s/UGouuCkaZXI/AAAAAAAAA6U/skBbQKGTJ48/s200/LOG+Near+Dead+from+Dog.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That dog seriously nearly killed me.<br />
Me, Goku. A Dog. Goku. Dog.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Problem #3: Every gameplay mechanic involving a special ability
seems to have been designed to include said abilities with as little
effort in the programming as possible. Just look at how you fly!
You press R to enter a limited flight mode, and you have to keep your
flight counter up by collecting orbs with feathers on them...what?
What?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jW6kgc4Jw_8/UGouuiqCu1I/AAAAAAAAA6c/kuiWCiPySr4/s1600/LOGLOLCollision.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jW6kgc4Jw_8/UGouuiqCu1I/AAAAAAAAA6c/kuiWCiPySr4/s200/LOGLOLCollision.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How Do I Collision?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Problem #4: The choice of enemies and the strength of enemies is just perplexing. At the beginning of the game, you can easily be killed by...a dog.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Did the developers just totally miss the part where the player is <b>freaking Goku!?</b> Y'know, Goku? Anime Superman? And no, they're not wolves. I thought they were at first, but they used the same sprite in the sequel for NPC dogs.</div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ykn-Sy3BhDA/UGovm7EdK2I/AAAAAAAAA6k/NVeymCHRQe4/s1600/LOGDerpFactRaditz.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ykn-Sy3BhDA/UGovm7EdK2I/AAAAAAAAA6k/NVeymCHRQe4/s200/LOGDerpFactRaditz.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raditz: Maximum Derp</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Other early enemies include snakes that are nearly impossible to see because their bodies are literally two-pixels thick, and crabs that take dozens of punches to kill and are immune to your weakest fireball attack.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2HishFkqbaw/UGovnEAdPGI/AAAAAAAAA6s/IUrErpp8xIE/s1600/LOGStory.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2HishFkqbaw/UGovnEAdPGI/AAAAAAAAA6s/IUrErpp8xIE/s200/LOGStory.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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Problem #5: The graphics are just bad. When they don't use low
quality JPEG renders for landmark locations (such as Master Roshi's house)
they are almost frighteningly reminiscent of the graphics I used to
draw into RPG Maker 95's tileset when I was 8 years old.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kc3LwNY0wI8/UGowUjQsmyI/AAAAAAAAA68/z5W_00uWRnQ/s1600/LOG+Sprite+Width+Limit.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kc3LwNY0wI8/UGowUjQsmyI/AAAAAAAAA68/z5W_00uWRnQ/s200/LOG+Sprite+Width+Limit.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
For some reason, Webfoot (the developer) decided that nearly every
sprite in the game needed to fit within the same pixel limitations.
Because of that, several characters appear way off-scale with each
other, notably Recoome and Burter who are enormous in the anime and
here are the exact same size as Goku (and everyone else). This is
also a problem with Goku's hair, his spikes are scrunched up in order
to fit within the width limit. Worst of all, Goku's circumcised hair
spikes remained in Legacy of Goku II, not being redrawn properly
until Buu's Fury.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-44N2NlivNV4/UGowUEsUl5I/AAAAAAAAA60/zJ4azwSK7iE/s1600/LOG+Goku's+Concern.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-44N2NlivNV4/UGowUEsUl5I/AAAAAAAAA60/zJ4azwSK7iE/s200/LOG+Goku's+Concern.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh no, my best friend died.<br />
Well, I better just continue to<br />
express mild curiosity.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Seriously, look in those screenshots to the right there, especially the one with Frieza in his second form. Frieza's second form is one of the largest characters to appear in the anime. Here, he's almost the same size as Goku. Also, is it just me or does he look like he's really uncomfortable walking with his arms snug against his sides?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Problem #6: You only ever play as Goku and the game tries to follow
the anime too closely for its own good (and yet also manages to add a
painful amount of excruciatingly stupid sidequests). Because of
this, <b>huge</b> chunks of the story are skipped over entirely.
Remember all that stuff that happens between Goku's fight with Vegeta
and his arrival on Namek? You know, Gohan, Krillin and Bulma heading
to Namek by themselves, collecting the Dragon Balls while playing an
epic game of cat & mouse with Frieza and Vegeta, and then teaming
up with Vegeta only to nearly be killed by the Ginyu force? None of
it's in this game! Hooray!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Problem #7: GGUUURRAAAAAAH! This game is just really, really awful,
OK? Don't ever play it.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
What is especially hilarious about this game is the fact that there
is a bug that makes you invincible (get hit with a projectile while flying) and
Webfoot <i>also included a cheat code for invincibility.</i> Yeah,
way to test your game.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ym_xSnCJDO4/UGozBFIq7mI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/J5aqbCr2oLo/s1600/LOG+Pro+Programming.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ym_xSnCJDO4/UGozBFIq7mI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/J5aqbCr2oLo/s200/LOG+Pro+Programming.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is with the glitch active. All Frieza does it walk up to you. He doesn't attack. He just moves closer until he's practically making out with you and just stands there. You can follow up with as many successive punches as you like and he still won't hit back. 'Cause Frieza's just a cool guy like that.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oflHOFBrHCQ/UGo0M5it7MI/AAAAAAAAA7g/9fIogLdvHFM/s1600/LOG+Game+Over.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oflHOFBrHCQ/UGo0M5it7MI/AAAAAAAAA7g/9fIogLdvHFM/s200/LOG+Game+Over.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
The Game Over Screen. Courtesy of a Dog.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Z8Tnbrj4ZQ/UGtsDoCUlfI/AAAAAAAAA78/0TqvKvKRjjA/s1600/LOG2+Title.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Z8Tnbrj4ZQ/UGtsDoCUlfI/AAAAAAAAA78/0TqvKvKRjjA/s400/LOG2+Title.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Legacy
of Goku II</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
No! It's back! Noooooo—What the...it's...it's actually...good.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yeah, this might be the starkest case ever of a quality jump between
two games in a series. Legacy of Goku II is actually a good game.
It's not a remarkable game but being the successor to what could very
well be the worst video game I have ever played*, that's still
astounding.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Well, at least the worst game I've played that was both actually a licensed game and I played on a legitimate cartridge.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jn75RMoiwjU/UGtudf_Zq2I/AAAAAAAAA8E/rvoo90kYEJ4/s1600/LOG2+Gameplay+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jn75RMoiwjU/UGtudf_Zq2I/AAAAAAAAA8E/rvoo90kYEJ4/s200/LOG2+Gameplay+1.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g89e0AxKp0s/UGtuerV-BhI/AAAAAAAAA8U/3ZxQsBJnNYM/s1600/LOG2+Gameplay+3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g89e0AxKp0s/UGtuerV-BhI/AAAAAAAAA8U/3ZxQsBJnNYM/s200/LOG2+Gameplay+3.PNG" width="200" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D74OiiOs7ts/UGtud44r3TI/AAAAAAAAA8M/3_oXHB9Oylo/s1600/LOG2+Gameplay+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D74OiiOs7ts/UGtud44r3TI/AAAAAAAAA8M/3_oXHB9Oylo/s200/LOG2+Gameplay+2.PNG" width="200" /></a>There's diagonal movement now! The dumb, pointless flying mechanic
is totally gone! Characters have decent pixel-art portraits! Text
boxes are neat-looking while being unobtrusive and can even be
manually positioned with the L and R buttons! The health and energy
meters look like something you'd actually see in a typical real game!
The environment graphics are fantastic! Basic enemies are varied
and consist of large, wild animals and things that you can actually
understand being able to hurt a Z-Fighter (and not a god damn dog)!
You get to play as 5 different characters! The character
sprites...still don't look great. But hey, at least they aren't all
confined to the same resolution in this game!<br />
<br />
While the natural environments in the game look very good, the city
environments are rather drab but they get the job done.<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Being an action RPG, there are puzzles to solve along with the
enemies you combat. None are particularly taxing on your brain and,
in fact, one of them is a series of switches that have to be in a
specific setup that the game gives you absolutely no hints about; so
that just becomes a game of Press All the Switches at Random and Hope
It Eventually Works!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IVSSh-waqWs/UGtvKaryU2I/AAAAAAAAA8c/5FYoRUxiVM8/s1600/LOG2+Dialogue.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IVSSh-waqWs/UGtvKaryU2I/AAAAAAAAA8c/5FYoRUxiVM8/s200/LOG2+Dialogue.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
The combat is much improved. Enemies still don't have the greatest
AI, but when backed into a corner, they'll slide around behind you
which makes it so you have to keep moving while fighting. Since this
game covers the Cell arc of the show, you'll be fighting the
androids. True to the anime, if you use energy-based attacks on
either #19 or #20/Dr. Gero, it will heal them.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--PDNEMYwLy8/UGtvK743MxI/AAAAAAAAA8k/6_AHZFli8d4/s1600/LOG2+Frieza.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--PDNEMYwLy8/UGtvK743MxI/AAAAAAAAA8k/6_AHZFli8d4/s200/LOG2+Frieza.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
The game even features a couple surprisingly extensive sidequests
with very satisfying payoffs.<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lZbadXSdq-s/UGtvLdeSgJI/AAAAAAAAA8s/1ULNUFaKfe0/s1600/LOG2+Piccolo+Portrait.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lZbadXSdq-s/UGtvLdeSgJI/AAAAAAAAA8s/1ULNUFaKfe0/s200/LOG2+Piccolo+Portrait.PNG" width="200" /></a>Of course the game isn't without it's faults. If you get the timing
and spacing down just right, you can pummel even large groups of
enemies for a while without ever being hit. The character portraits,
while enormously improved over the previous game, do look a bit
amateurish and lack multiple expressions. The character sprites have
lots of animations but they're just not particularly well-drawn and
look out of place occasionally in the beautiful natural environment
areas.</div>
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Much of the game's dialogue is verbatim from FUNimation's dub of the
anime. I'm undecided how I feel about that. It's not really a point
for or against the game, it's something that is what it is.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ybmRwjtmZfs/UGtwD164D8I/AAAAAAAAA80/_HzDc0Igtl4/s1600/LOG2+Parallax.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ybmRwjtmZfs/UGtwD164D8I/AAAAAAAAA80/_HzDc0Igtl4/s200/LOG2+Parallax.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's How You Perspective</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The difference between these first two games just floors me. For the longest time when I was younger, I really wanted to see a Dragon Ball Z game with similar mechanics to the Zelda franchise. When we finally got Legacy of Goku, boy was I disappointed. I'm not sure I ever would have bothered with the sequel if I didn't get to play it for free thanks to a friend lending it to me.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F4NL45G2ndU/UGtwE7o7F7I/AAAAAAAAA88/rf9fIE_hcXE/s1600/LOG2+Story.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F4NL45G2ndU/UGtwE7o7F7I/AAAAAAAAA88/rf9fIE_hcXE/s200/LOG2+Story.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
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Webfoot (yes, it's actually still the same developer) went pretty all out with available hardware even adding animated effects like the fire seen to the left (though a still image of it doesn't really enforce my point here) and weather effects like snow and rainstorms.</div>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
If it wasn't for the variable quality of some of the graphics (Chi-Chi's portrait looks downright creepy), Legacy of Goku II would be among the very best looking games the Game Boy Advance has.</div>
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This is a good game for big fans, casual fans, and gamers who are
into the genre. Again, you won't see anything revolutionary here but
it's still a pretty fun title.</div>
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<b>Buu's
Fury</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vGkZWQCFQRA/UGtxgILZgHI/AAAAAAAAA9M/9XoEh-YcJBM/s1600/BF+CharacterPortrait.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vGkZWQCFQRA/UGtxgILZgHI/AAAAAAAAA9M/9XoEh-YcJBM/s200/BF+CharacterPortrait.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
The final installment in the Legacy of Goku trilogy and it's...a bit
better than the second one. There are some minor differences in the
gameplay, such as a much more in-depth leveling system, with which I
find myself unsure whether I consider them improvements, downgrades,
or just differences.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xx17fKvZbK8/UGtxgmukoxI/AAAAAAAAA9U/ycJx0dyz8HA/s1600/BF+End.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xx17fKvZbK8/UGtxgmukoxI/AAAAAAAAA9U/ycJx0dyz8HA/s200/BF+End.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
No question about it, this is the best looking of the trilogy.
Character portraits are now of truly professional pixel-art quality
and have multiple expressions, character sprites while still a weak
area are generally improved, several environments have multiple
layered animations running, etc. It's at least on par with how good
common RPG's on the system looked (which was usually pretty good).<br />
However, message boxes have become a little more gaudy again with an overdone, golden "hi-tech-y" border.<br />
<br />
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This game ditched the enemy-sliding mechanic that Legacy of Goku II
had which stopped you from cornering enemies and replaced it with
some arguably better mechanics.</div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kQcN1usWQoA/UGtxhFWBCeI/AAAAAAAAA9c/E3KuzbjK6Zc/s1600/BF+Gameplay+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kQcN1usWQoA/UGtxhFWBCeI/AAAAAAAAA9c/E3KuzbjK6Zc/s200/BF+Gameplay+1.PNG" width="200" /></a> First off, the game now features blocking; both player characters and
enemies can block. Second, the timing for pulling off successive
hits on an enemy is now much more strict. Third, some enemies don't
get knocked back by your attacks at all and can still attack you even
while taking damage.</div>
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I do think the game is objectively better than Legacy of Goku II, but
I personally have never cared for manual stat leveling, and the Buu
arc is my least liked portion of Z (I do still like it). Because of
that, Legacy of Goku II is my favourite of the trilogy but speaking
strictly as a gamer, Buu's Fury is the best of the three. It's still
not spectacular, but it reaches the level of “pretty good”.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aJAN1d9bcio/UGtyeGaixOI/AAAAAAAAA9s/KRbjdvhldn0/s1600/BF+Exhibit+Hall.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aJAN1d9bcio/UGtyeGaixOI/AAAAAAAAA9s/KRbjdvhldn0/s200/BF+Exhibit+Hall.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
If you're a Dragon Ball fan, I say definitely check it out; if not
and you're still curious, give it a shot.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4Cs5-12oB2U/UGtyeraPd7I/AAAAAAAAA90/qg2z6ROPsEQ/s1600/BF+Menu.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4Cs5-12oB2U/UGtyeraPd7I/AAAAAAAAA90/qg2z6ROPsEQ/s200/BF+Menu.PNG" width="200" /></a>
Incidentally, during the 'Minute of Desperation' portion of the final
fight with Kid Buu, if you pause the game and un-pause, Goku's Spirit
Bomb will vanish. Just a minor bug I remember discovering on my
first playthrough. And speaking of bugs, if you want to max out your
Senzu Beans early on, use the one you're supposed to give to Videl.
Videl will still receive a bean even though you've already used the
only one you had and due to a programming oversight, you'll end up
with 255 Senzu Beans.</div>
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Next Time: The remaining Game Boy Advance Titles</div>
</div>
Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-1030042619201533942012-10-02T02:55:00.000-05:002012-10-02T02:55:38.547-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 6Well, we're at what I think will be roughly the halfway point with this retrospective. It's nearly 20 pages in the OpenOffice file and this section begins on the 10th page.<br />
So, without further adieu, Gameboy Color!<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xv0pw3k3yEs/UGlGuqcC7QI/AAAAAAAAA2s/t_2V1SjaDTQ/s1600/Nintendo-GameBoy-Color-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xv0pw3k3yEs/UGlGuqcC7QI/AAAAAAAAA2s/t_2V1SjaDTQ/s320/Nintendo-GameBoy-Color-small.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
The Western market only saw 1 Dragon Ball game released on the Gameboy as far as I'm aware. I've attempted to play the previous 2 that were only released in Japan but could not understand them well enough to even make it beyond the very first scenario of either game so I won't be including them here.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Llt9KHKkDcc/UGlHCSGcVXI/AAAAAAAAA20/wpoDZDSk2Qs/s1600/Dbzlegendarysuperwarriors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Llt9KHKkDcc/UGlHCSGcVXI/AAAAAAAAA20/wpoDZDSk2Qs/s1600/Dbzlegendarysuperwarriors.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
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<b>Legendary
Super Warriors</b></div>
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Remember back in Part 1 when I said that Card Battle games are not a totally lost cause? Here's why. Legendary Super Warriors (despite the rather...dumb name) is the one and only example I know of of a Card Battle game done
right.</div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uxYD3vHgU1k/UGlHjCDoItI/AAAAAAAAA3M/ONx87QVEbbc/s1600/LSW+Title.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uxYD3vHgU1k/UGlHjCDoItI/AAAAAAAAA3M/ONx87QVEbbc/s1600/LSW+Title.PNG" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mMkPz_LGEyE/UGlHifAHePI/AAAAAAAAA28/ORJu049Do0g/s1600/LSW+Piccolo+Battle+Sprite.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mMkPz_LGEyE/UGlHifAHePI/AAAAAAAAA28/ORJu049Do0g/s1600/LSW+Piccolo+Battle+Sprite.PNG" /></a><br />
This is actually a rather impressive game. The story mode covers the
<i>entirety of Dragon Ball Z</i>. That is absolutely nuts for a
Gameboy Color game. And what's more, it covers damn near every
single fight, featuring probably the largest character roster any
Dragon Ball game had at the time. Although, it's not exactly a
fighting game (and as I covered in yesterday's post, larger rosters are not indicative of quality gameplay).<br />
<br />
In this case, the card-based combat system is treated very much like
a virtual version of a license-based card game; only it's not based
on any card game that actually exists (the actual Dragon Ball Z card
game being much different). You get to build a deck, you get to
improve your deck throughout the course of the game and you unlock
more characters as you play.<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oSD0gI_OSTU/UGlHilZLO9I/AAAAAAAAA3A/CICDWvAAU7s/s1600/LSW+Story.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oSD0gI_OSTU/UGlHilZLO9I/AAAAAAAAA3A/CICDWvAAU7s/s1600/LSW+Story.PNG" /></a> Being able to build your deck is one of 2 elements that make this
game vastly superior to the Card Battle games that came before it.
In the previous games, cards were given to you randomly from an
imaginary deck of infinite capacity; and that totally throws strategy
out the window.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Giving the player the option to specifically set up what cards
they'll be seeing subverts that problem.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The game's superiority is also affirmed through the fact that you
<i>actually understand what every card does without resorting to
trial and error.</i></div>
I've played Legend of the Super Saiyan dozens of times and I <b>still</b>
have no idea what most of the card symbols mean. In Legendary Super
Warriors, all the cards have upfront, clear descriptions of what they
do and properly indicative artwork.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kcAiA_fWPYk/UGlIT3BIIUI/AAAAAAAAA3U/ij6lijgLAk4/s1600/LSW+Battle+Map+Screen.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kcAiA_fWPYk/UGlIT3BIIUI/AAAAAAAAA3U/ij6lijgLAk4/s1600/LSW+Battle+Map+Screen.PNG" /></a></div>
The game is a treat to look at too. It's definitely one of the
better looking Gameboy Color titles, not quite meeting the best the
system has to offer but coming in close. The clever methods of
working around the limitations of the system are much-appreciated and
the game uses the 'SD' style for battle sprites which, I think, suits
Toriyama's character designs just fine and are always a good pick
when you have limited resolution.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ocE9LHyK2Nk/UGlIUNpVCpI/AAAAAAAAA3c/TNgt-gemNTg/s1600/LSW+Battle.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ocE9LHyK2Nk/UGlIUNpVCpI/AAAAAAAAA3c/TNgt-gemNTg/s1600/LSW+Battle.PNG" /></a></div>
Once again, I feel like quite a hypocrite because the story sequences of this game are very, <i>very </i>similar to the Super Gokuden games, which I wrote off as being incredibly boring. However, in Legendary Super Warriors's case, the story sequences move much faster, have a lot more personality to them, and don't force you to wait through 3 centuries' worth of dialogue before you get to the next section of gameplay. The text printing is also very fast.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-buCGNXMHwjo/UGlIUudnexI/AAAAAAAAA3k/s96S497UbEM/s1600/LSW+Chapter+Screen.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-buCGNXMHwjo/UGlIUudnexI/AAAAAAAAA3k/s96S497UbEM/s1600/LSW+Chapter+Screen.PNG" /></a></div>
The game splits the story into chapters (32 in total if I recall correctly; it has been a while since I played the whole way through) and effectively consists of 3 different presentations to its gameplay: Story sequences (the aforementioned Super Gokuden-like dialogue scenes), overworld scenes and battles.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3jbk4NTYAxE/UGlIVA1m4EI/AAAAAAAAA3s/zCR3piTjUaU/s1600/LSW+Gohan+Battle+Sprite.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3jbk4NTYAxE/UGlIVA1m4EI/AAAAAAAAA3s/zCR3piTjUaU/s1600/LSW+Gohan+Battle+Sprite.PNG" /></a>The overworld scenes are the most graphically unimpressive portions of the game and, likewise, are also the least fun. Thankfully, they make up very little of the playtime. During these, you can search for hidden items, and talk to characters who may or may not trigger the next portion of the game to go underway.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UFIK5nAeH2s/UGlIVsQ-CnI/AAAAAAAAA30/lT7hglS2MPM/s1600/LSW+Goku+VS+Vegeta.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UFIK5nAeH2s/UGlIVsQ-CnI/AAAAAAAAA30/lT7hglS2MPM/s1600/LSW+Goku+VS+Vegeta.PNG" /></a>Battles make up the vast majority of actual gameplay and that's not really a bad thing. They're actually pretty fun and give you a lot more tactical input than the likes of Legend of the Super Saiyan. You have the option of taking one of any 4 positions during battle (either near or far from the opponent, either on ground or in the air) and each has a relevant advantage and weakness.<br />
<br />
<br />
Certain cards also involve quicktime button input from the player (one of few quicktime events I'm actually fond of); for instance, there's "4-Stage Attack" cards which will show a sequence of 4 button presses that you have to press in the specified time limit (usually around 2 seconds).<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-umdpxFzyxcs/UGlIV6JflDI/AAAAAAAAA38/Q8K9v4y18yo/s1600/LSW+Masenko.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-umdpxFzyxcs/UGlIV6JflDI/AAAAAAAAA38/Q8K9v4y18yo/s1600/LSW+Masenko.PNG" /></a>In fact, now that I think about it, battle sequences in turn-based RPGs might be the one and only thing that would be improved by quicktime events. At least in this game, it certainly helps to feel that you, the player, are actually contributing <i>something</i> to the on-screen action.<br />
<br />
There are certain dialogue quirks in the game that mostly result from censorship. While the European release will use words like "die" and "kill" liberally, the US release replaces those instances with "lose" and "lost"; often resulting in grammatical errors ("Did he lost?").<br />
<br />
Oddly, Raditz's name is spelled with 2 d's ('Radditz') in this game despite the majority of characters using the spellings from the FUNimation dub.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pZWf1z8Tu9c/UGlIWTw60JI/AAAAAAAAA4E/Cw3YZdaiBCM/s1600/LSW+Overworld.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pZWf1z8Tu9c/UGlIWTw60JI/AAAAAAAAA4E/Cw3YZdaiBCM/s1600/LSW+Overworld.PNG" /></a></div>
<br />
Now, it might be because I've always been a sucker for colourful 8-bit graphics, which this game has in spades, but I really do think this game has a very strong and unique charm.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r7X2-bcncJI/UGlIWr8KeVI/AAAAAAAAA4M/mDgq4lGTW6g/s1600/LSW+Story2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r7X2-bcncJI/UGlIWr8KeVI/AAAAAAAAA4M/mDgq4lGTW6g/s1600/LSW+Story2.PNG" /></a> In this case, I'd say if you want to see the only decent Card Battle
system ever (to my knowledge) give the game a shot. Be warned though
that the game is difficult, very long, and can get rather boring.</div>
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It's alright if you're a fan and alright if you're just a gamer. If
nothing else, it's a fairly unique experience.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OYr3DjMCO3I/UGlP21nkGHI/AAAAAAAAA4o/fixYxeAdMRs/s1600/20100419-gamecube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OYr3DjMCO3I/UGlP21nkGHI/AAAAAAAAA4o/fixYxeAdMRs/s320/20100419-gamecube.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
And here we are at the Gamecube section. I only have 2 games to talk about for this particular system.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tDrvi4Tx0ZI/UGlQcJ_c9fI/AAAAAAAAA4w/ZJXs0oHwl2A/s1600/Dragon+Ball+Z+Budokai+(USA)1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tDrvi4Tx0ZI/UGlQcJ_c9fI/AAAAAAAAA4w/ZJXs0oHwl2A/s320/Dragon+Ball+Z+Budokai+(USA)1.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<b>Budokai</b><br />
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The first Budokai was ported from the PS2 to the Gamecube roughly a
year after it came out and the only difference was the inclusion of
primitive cel-shading. It did make the game look moderately better
than the PS2 version but it's still an example of a lazy port as the
Gamecube had the technical power to do at least a little better.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hNgFXmvN_yA/UGlQm71wyAI/AAAAAAAAA44/NuTxPU3eTrg/s1600/_-Dragonball-Z-Budokai-GameCube-_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hNgFXmvN_yA/UGlQm71wyAI/AAAAAAAAA44/NuTxPU3eTrg/s200/_-Dragonball-Z-Budokai-GameCube-_.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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(Credit for the screenshot goes to spong.com; I no longer have access to a Gamecube in order to get screenshots of this game.)</div>
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This game is just dull. So dull, in fact, that I can't really
dislike it. It's mediocrity itself branded into a Dragon Ball Z
game.</div>
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It plays OK, the music's OK, the graphics are OK, the voice acting's
OK, it's just OK in every aspect.</div>
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While I only occasionally got to play Budokai 2 and 3, I can say that
they are marked improvements over the first but not so much that
they're really worth investing in (although I do sporadically hear good things about Budokai 3 so maybe I just need to go back to it).</div>
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This is one example of a game where I don't really know what to say
about it as far as whether or not to recommend it. I'd say rent it
but I doubt you'll find a rental store that still carries it. I
suppose if you can grab a used copy for a couple bucks and you <i>really</i>
want to own it, I could see that being justifiable.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ULcX8vOs2_Y/UGlR4cKugoI/AAAAAAAAA5A/zXYsJKi97S0/s1600/box-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ULcX8vOs2_Y/UGlR4cKugoI/AAAAAAAAA5A/zXYsJKi97S0/s320/box-l.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<b>Sagas</b></div>
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Similar to Budokai, I don't hate this game but I don't like it
either. In concept, it sounds like a great idea (a free-range Dragon
Ball Z action platformer? Hell yeah!) but in practice it's just very
dull.</div>
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The controls are awkward, the physics aren't well-polished and the
game, even by standards of the time, isn't very strong visually
either. The geometry is fine but the textures are ugly, especially
the muscle definition on the characters.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X5BwBVZ-W5w/UGlR_pAH-VI/AAAAAAAAA5I/p6FXwTDWp18/s1600/Dragon+Ball+Z+Sagas+(USA)3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X5BwBVZ-W5w/UGlR_pAH-VI/AAAAAAAAA5I/p6FXwTDWp18/s200/Dragon+Ball+Z+Sagas+(USA)3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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There's really just not much to say about this game. I will give
Sagas that it is a somewhat unique game. There really aren't a whole
lot of Dragon Ball games that use similar mechanics (Infinite World
sort of did but did a very poor job of it from what I've seen, heard
and read) so this is another game where if you can get it for a few
bucks, and you're interested, that's alright.</div>
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Sagas was actually the very first video game I ever bought with my
own money (being a 15 at its release and, as such, games I owned
prior were all presents). So it is a little unfortunate that an
event like that resulted in owning such a dud.</div>
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Next Time: The Legacy of Goku Trilogy (or Gameboy Advance games Part 1).</div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-9719455950116687472012-10-01T02:05:00.000-05:002012-10-01T02:05:49.265-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6pUvZOobkks/UGjHUSTd07I/AAAAAAAAA0k/R6iTSMya5yM/s1600/PlayStation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6pUvZOobkks/UGjHUSTd07I/AAAAAAAAA0k/R6iTSMya5yM/s200/PlayStation.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f-53CZNpNNs/UGjHQR0xjmI/AAAAAAAAA0c/E7o538rHwYs/s1600/SegaMegadrive2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f-53CZNpNNs/UGjHQR0xjmI/AAAAAAAAA0c/E7o538rHwYs/s200/SegaMegadrive2.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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Today's post is about Dragon Ball games on the Sega Mega Drive and the Sony PlayStation! How about that? It's exactly what I said it would be about yesterday.</div>
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<b><u>Sega Mega Drive/Genesis</u></b></div>
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<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eH34qznDIfA/UGjJ0aHmblI/AAAAAAAAA0s/mYv784Z92sU/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenTitle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eH34qznDIfA/UGjJ0aHmblI/AAAAAAAAA0s/mYv784Z92sU/s320/BuyuuRetsudenTitle.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Buyuu
Retsuden (or, as the French title up there translates to, The Call of Destiny)</b></div>
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This game is technically considered part of the Butouden series but
was instead released on Sega's 16-bit console. It's not very good.
It's better than the first Super Butouden but it has rather wonky
physics and awkward controls. It looks alright and marks the first
fighting game appearance of Krillin, Captain Ginyu and Recoome, but
all in all isn't really going to wow you and keep you wanting more.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2tsDceAPsfg/UGjKgrzjWVI/AAAAAAAAA00/bxXPrD7kIcA/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenCharacterSelect.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2tsDceAPsfg/UGjKgrzjWVI/AAAAAAAAA00/bxXPrD7kIcA/s200/BuyuuRetsudenCharacterSelect.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
There's a pretty decent roster of characters in all (11 in total) and the characters actually do play differently from each other. Similar to the first Butouden title, it's an admirable effort but several quirks in the game really hurt the experience. The limited buttons on the Mega Drive/Genesis controller resulted in the game having to map even basic energy attacks like fireballs to button combinations (rather than a simple tap of A as in the Super Famicom titles).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EoXE6sGTEB4/UGjKhbrKMzI/AAAAAAAAA08/7Sx1-jjBpMo/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenIntro.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EoXE6sGTEB4/UGjKhbrKMzI/AAAAAAAAA08/7Sx1-jjBpMo/s200/BuyuuRetsudenIntro.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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The music is OK, it's a bit more entertaining than Super Butouden 2's soundtrack but it's certainly nothing that will leave an impression. The sound effects are pretty nice though and the Character Select music is a bit catchy.</div>
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The graphics are nothing spectacular but they certainly look better than the original Super Butouden and personally I think the sprites do have their own unique charm that I can't quite describe.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-30WwhqSi95I/UGjL__L1vUI/AAAAAAAAA1E/3Mv-4FhAHA8/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-30WwhqSi95I/UGjL__L1vUI/AAAAAAAAA1E/3Mv-4FhAHA8/s200/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
Buyuu Retsuden is a refreshingly fast paced game with certain attacks that can knock your opponent well across the stage in a split second. Unfortunately, as said prior, the game has very wonky physics and awkward controls. There <i>is</i> fun to be had here, it just isn't a must-play and doesn't quite live up to some of the experiences available on the Super Famicom.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ywxYqzAXG44/UGjMAE_eHgI/AAAAAAAAA1M/hUAZprhhNKc/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ywxYqzAXG44/UGjMAE_eHgI/AAAAAAAAA1M/hUAZprhhNKc/s200/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay2.png" width="200" /></a></div>
Truth is, while I do have some nice things to say about the game, I never bothered with it much and I'm not going to spend much time on
it here. If you have access to the Super Famicom games, don't bother
with this one.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kx5Yiw7G5sg/UGjMAptGMQI/AAAAAAAAA1U/FYf7fY_uf40/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kx5Yiw7G5sg/UGjMAptGMQI/AAAAAAAAA1U/FYf7fY_uf40/s200/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay3.png" width="200" /></a></div>
And now I'm left to wonder why I got so many screenshots of this game when I don't have nearly enough text to compliment them.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yEBO9DJtIyw/UGjMBNQ_WYI/AAAAAAAAA1c/5cdsHJw3uaE/s1600/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yEBO9DJtIyw/UGjMBNQ_WYI/AAAAAAAAA1c/5cdsHJw3uaE/s200/BuyuuRetsudenGameplay4.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Sony PlayStation:</u> I have never owned any PlayStation iteration, but I have had plenty of experience with all 3 thanks to friends. I
have only played 3 of the original PlayStation Dragon Ball games and,
much like the Famicom games, they all suck.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cEdP-ZDv5oU/UGjORZczavI/AAAAAAAAA1s/5Xijb-BA3CM/s1600/Final+Bout+Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cEdP-ZDv5oU/UGjORZczavI/AAAAAAAAA1s/5Xijb-BA3CM/s320/Final+Bout+Title.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Final
Bout</b></div>
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The follow-up to the Super Butouden trilogy (and Shin Butouden which
I have not played) and probably the most well-known of the games I've
mentioned so far, Final Bout was one of the first Dragon Ball video
games to see a North American release despite being grounded in the
Dragon Ball GT anime which North America was still several years away
from seeing. The voice cast used for this release was entirely
different from the FUNimation or Ocean Group voice cast. Oddly, this
translation features the voice of Steve Blum, a fantastic voice actor
relatively unheard of at the time, as Goku. The game was reissued by
Atari in 2004 (having been previously released by Bandai in 1997)
and, by this point, GT actually had begun to air in English.
Unfortunately, this was well after the PlayStation had run its
course.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NShK_4k8ym0/UGjOwOV5qRI/AAAAAAAAA10/cSPBn_ilf4o/s1600/Final+Bout+Rerelease+Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NShK_4k8ym0/UGjOwOV5qRI/AAAAAAAAA10/cSPBn_ilf4o/s200/Final+Bout+Rerelease+Box.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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My local hobby shop had a kiosk set up where people could go right up
and play a game of Final Bout whenever they wanted.</div>
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</div>
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I know for a fact that this game is a cult classic but I am also
entirely confident in calling it terrible. This was the first Dragon
Ball fighting game to use fully 3D graphics and it actually looks
better than I remembered. Obviously it's very, <i>very</i> dated but
for a lot of Dragon Ball fans, it was the first time we saw the
characters built with 3D models which was pretty cool at the time..
Of course, graphics don't make the game, you need a healthy dose of
quality gameplay to make a good game. Too bad Final Bout has easily
the worst gameplay in the Butouden series. Yes, even worse than the
first one.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The one and only improvement this game made was flying...but Hyper
Dimension already made that improvement and did it better than Final
Bout.</div>
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The controls in Final Bout are sluggish and unresponsive, the physics
are nonsensical and the game is <i><b>slow</b></i>. I've read that
the English release is actually considerably slowed down compared to
the Japanese original but I've never been able to test or confirm
that. Honestly, since the core design elements of the game are bad
anyway, I don't think increasing the speed is going to help it much.</div>
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In the end, I just don't care. It's a bad game so I'm not wasting my
time and efforts on it and neither should you.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3T4G4fqkTok/UGjQPLcvr_I/AAAAAAAAA18/tPZLmDWRuPY/s1600/Legends+Title+Screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3T4G4fqkTok/UGjQPLcvr_I/AAAAAAAAA18/tPZLmDWRuPY/s1600/Legends+Title+Screen.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Legends (or 'The Legend' according to the Dragon Ball Wiki)</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n78ZBNa107A/UGjR_VHVj1I/AAAAAAAAA2E/M04wD-LHzkE/s1600/Legends+Gameplay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n78ZBNa107A/UGjR_VHVj1I/AAAAAAAAA2E/M04wD-LHzkE/s200/Legends+Gameplay.jpg" width="200" /></a> Here's a game that I really wish was good. Legends was this weird
blend of the action/RPG and fighting genres and also marked the first
use in a Dragon Ball fighting game of having multiple characters on
either side. The combat was also heavily flight-based, a concept
that didn't get very thoroughly revisited until Gameboy Advance's
Supersonic Warriors and the overall playstyle was built around a
'balance meter' that displayed on screen that would move to the left
or right depending on how well either side was fairing.
Incidentally, the balance meter was also revisited in Supersonic
Warriors but the game wasn't built around it like Legends was.</div>
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This game had a great concept but, once again, it played terrible,
sounded terrible and looked terrible.</div>
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That's all there is to it. Moving on.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Fx6FVYO_Bk/UGjSce4WmdI/AAAAAAAAA2M/YwTcTUH2yhI/s1600/UB22+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Fx6FVYO_Bk/UGjSce4WmdI/AAAAAAAAA2M/YwTcTUH2yhI/s320/UB22+Cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Ultimate
Battle 22/27</b></div>
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Holy balls is this game awful. Not only does this game suffer from
all the same problems as Final Bout, it also featured some of the
worst presentation I have seen in a fighting game and introduced a
gimmick that I now consider the bane of Dragon Ball video games'
existence.</div>
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The in-fight graphics feature very minimalistic 3D environments with 2D
character sprites that are actually rendered cel-drawings from
animators. This is a pretty cool idea for the character sprites but
the renders are atrocious and riddled with bad anti-aliasing.
Additionally, certain character match-ups feature special dialogue
(such as Gohan versus Cell) and these special cut-scenes are some of
the most uninteresting, uninspired, dull easter eggs you will ever
encounter in a video game. Even by anime standards, they're very
poorly animated too.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For example, the special dialogue between Gohan and Cell is a
rendition of Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transformation. They both speak
to each other, and to Android #16's malfunctioning head as they did
in the anime. So far, so good. Then, Cell's right leg spazzes out
and for some reason that makes Gohan transform.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Hyperbole aside, Cell's leg moving is supposed to be the part where
he steps on and crushes #16's head. Why didn't they actually show
that happening? Why was it just 2 frames of Cell bending his knee
while his feet were off the bottom of the screen?</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N6NC29HU8YA/UGjS1HVZYqI/AAAAAAAAA2U/rDhnckdVjZ4/s1600/UB22+Character+Select.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N6NC29HU8YA/UGjS1HVZYqI/AAAAAAAAA2U/rDhnckdVjZ4/s200/UB22+Character+Select.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As for the gimmick, boasting 22 characters in a Dragon Ball game is
beyond laughable today. I really wish it wasn't. Ultimate Battle 22
(or 27 when you put in the secret characters code) started the trend
of pushing a large character roster as a selling point and, as a result, also started the trend of fans demanding each successive Dragon Ball fighting game to
feature a larger roster of characters. I rather dislike this trend,
because now, rather than make the characters truly unique by spending
time developing and balancing each individual moveset, developers
instead focus on cloning the same template character again and again
and again, give it minor tweaks, a new character model and add it to
the roster. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm not entirely fond of the
Budokai and Tenkaichi series.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The ironic thing being that, even as terrible as Ultimate Battle 22
is, having a large character roster is the one thing it actually does
right. Each character is actually unique. But that doesn't save the
game.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Once again, don't waste your time here.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next Time: Gameboy Color and Gamecube.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-21416487311864334152012-09-30T02:02:00.000-05:002012-09-30T02:03:39.674-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bM3lhZpxeS4/UGeuFwlQsEI/AAAAAAAAAyU/ieKiZXYNxKM/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bM3lhZpxeS4/UGeuFwlQsEI/AAAAAAAAAyU/ieKiZXYNxKM/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Title.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Hyper
Dimension</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I hated this game as a kid. But then, I also loved Final Fantasy
Mystic Quest as a kid.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Hyper Dimension is, to me, unarguably the best of the Super Famicom
Dragon Ball titles and easily one of the best Dragon Ball Z video
games ever made. So, obviously, my opinion has changed drastically
since I first played it.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Like Super Butouden 2, this game also introduced me to something: Emulator limitations.
For a considerable amount of time, the most popular Super Nintendo
emulator, ZSNES, could not run Hyper Dimension. That forced my
brother and myself to seek out another emulator. We found Snes9x
and, funnily enough, the site we found it on specifically claimed
something like “Yes, this plays Hyper Dimension”.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The most current ZSNES runs the game no problem and it's been able to
for a long time now. I'm just taking a bit of a stroll down
Nostalgia Way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YowYAKwF11M/UGew8wuDusI/AAAAAAAAAys/njk1GeHFSEQ/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Character+Portraits.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YowYAKwF11M/UGew8wuDusI/AAAAAAAAAys/njk1GeHFSEQ/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Character+Portraits.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaP7pZaQZzY/UGew-ygO_XI/AAAAAAAAAy8/aNxZyX_OSHc/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaP7pZaQZzY/UGew-ygO_XI/AAAAAAAAAy8/aNxZyX_OSHc/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+1.png" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wr2svwJfYbI/UGew98PSKqI/AAAAAAAAAy0/IZ4VCqsEz5o/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Character+Select.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wr2svwJfYbI/UGew98PSKqI/AAAAAAAAAy0/IZ4VCqsEz5o/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Character+Select.png" width="200" /></a> This
game did so much to set it apart from the Super Butouden series while
still maintaining the same basic control scheme to make it accessible
for people who had played that series. Almost everything new Hyper
Dimension introduced, it got it right. And here's where I feel like
a hypocrite because Hyper Dimension is actually a considerably <i>slower</i>
game than Butouden 3. However, it's a bit faster than Butouden 2 and
the overall gameplay compliments the speed of the game.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The new mechanics that bothered me in my youth are the fusion of
health and energy, and the new flight system. Really, they only
bothered me because at the time I was used to the Butouden games and
just wanted more of the same.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Health and energy/Ki are the same thing in this game. You actually
hurt yourself when using energy-based attacks. You also heal
yourself by charging. This is one mechanic that I think is very
complimented by the somewhat slower speed of Hyper Dimension; it's
something you really have to think about how you're timing. It is
also true to the anime and manga where Ki/chi/energy/whatever is
specifically defined as the 'life energy' of all living things; in
fact, both Vegeta and Tien at some point die in the anime by
expending all of the energy they had left into a final attack.
Although, in Hyper Dimension, you can't KO yourself by using too much
energy, once you reach 1 point of health, you're just no longer able
to use energy-based attacks (except for basic fireballs which never
cost any health/energy to use in these games).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Hyper Dimension also introduces real-time control over the strength
of your beams. In the Super Butouden trilogy, executing an energy
wave while being near your opponent would result in a weak version of
the attack; you needed to be further away to execute the full-power
version. The typical main beam button input for all of these games
is Down Back Forward A. Hyper Dimension instead lets you hold down A
at the end of the input and shows the energy growing in the
character's hand, reaching a max and then resetting; so you control
the strength of your attack by letting off of the A button at the
right time.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Sadly, Hyper Dimension does not feature beam battles; when energy
waves of the same strength meet, they cancel each other out. When
energy beams of variable strength meet, the weakest one is cancelled
and the stronger one continues on.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Syvyl5d47oE/UGfgGZ-QZVI/AAAAAAAAAzU/C10cls5jcvg/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Syvyl5d47oE/UGfgGZ-QZVI/AAAAAAAAAzU/C10cls5jcvg/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+2.png" width="200" /></a></div>
All of these games feature a secondary beam attack as well with the
input Back Down Forward (or half circle down) A. In the Super
Butoudens, this is just a somewhat weaker special that costs less
energy. In Hyper Dimension, these attacks fire at an upward angle
for an anti-air assault or to juggle an opponent who's been knocked
into the air.<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LOVgSq5VFYw/UGfgG8ngEhI/AAAAAAAAAzc/i2LcVaEePA0/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LOVgSq5VFYw/UGfgG8ngEhI/AAAAAAAAAzc/i2LcVaEePA0/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+3.png" width="200" /></a>
Since Hyper Dimension no longer uses the X button to toggle between
the sky and the ground, it's now both the Throw button and the Swat
button. Throwing is exactly what you expect it to be. Swatting
works as a weak punch (if you're close enough to the opponent to hit
but not close enough to throw them) but it can also be used to
deflect weak energy attacks like simple fireballs.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e1M4XlGuAhg/UGfgHUQmYPI/AAAAAAAAAzk/9m0sbBb_i5o/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e1M4XlGuAhg/UGfgHUQmYPI/AAAAAAAAAzk/9m0sbBb_i5o/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Gameplay+4.png" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a>
Characters have unique signature moves and also have 'Desperation
Moves', one of my favourite new mechanics in this game. Once you
reach critically low health, your health bar will start blinking red.
While in this state, you can execute your character's ultimate
attack, or Desperation Move. Some of these have very tricky button
combinations but they're nice to have all the same; Vegeta's being
especially cool.</div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The only new mechanic in Hyper Dimension that I think is outright bad
is the inclusion of background attacks. Each character has a
maneuver where they jump towards the background, leaving the usual
playing field, and charge back to the field with a punch or kick.
These are strong attacks and most, if not all, of them are guaranteed
to knock down the opponent when they hit. However, they'll almost
never hit. Because Hyper Dimension is a relatively slow game,
responding to an attack with this kind of complex animation is
extremely easy. These 'background depth attacks' telegraph
themselves horribly and are really just useless.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are no secret characters in this game, the roster goes Goku
(Super Saiyan 2), Majin Vegeta, Super Vegito, Gotenks (Super Saiyan
3), Piccolo, Perfect Cell, Frieza, Ultimate Gohan, Fat Buu, and Kid
Buu.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The game, like the Butouden series (2 specifically), features a story
mode, a versus mode, and a tournament mode. The story mode is a
little strange because it attempts to cover the entirety of Dragon
Ball Z while working around characters that aren't in the game. For
instance, the Saiyan saga is plainly skipped only giving a passing
mention to the fight with Vegeta, and the first battle is actually
Piccolo versus Frieza. Later on, you play as Majin Vegeta against
Perfect Cell which never happens in the anime but is meant to be the
game's rendition of Super Vegeta versus Semi-Perfect Cell.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5AlVEWCptNg/UGfhWVhO0iI/AAAAAAAAAzs/Mv3gHwyaQHg/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Intro+Goku.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5AlVEWCptNg/UGfhWVhO0iI/AAAAAAAAAzs/Mv3gHwyaQHg/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Intro+Goku.png" /></a></div>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DLftJf6VtUY/UGfhYCX91AI/AAAAAAAAAz0/ay1lo3QE49Y/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Shenron.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DLftJf6VtUY/UGfhYCX91AI/AAAAAAAAAz0/ay1lo3QE49Y/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Shenron.png" /></a><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Also,
did I mention that this game is downright gorgeous? Hyper Dimension
is one of the best looking 16-bit era games there is. Speaking of which,
if you're going to play it on ZSNES, <b>do not use the Super
Eagle Engine.</b> That rounding
filter may look nice on games like A Link to the Past and whatnot but
Hyper Dimension has so many pixel-art gradients that it actually
looks worse with the filter on.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CMbtb-32Pro/UGfhYvkix8I/AAAAAAAAAz8/0vp0QtSx9Os/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+Stage+Select.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CMbtb-32Pro/UGfhYvkix8I/AAAAAAAAAz8/0vp0QtSx9Os/s200/Hyper+Dimension+Stage+Select.png" width="200" /></a>Everything
in the game is incredibly, meticulously detailed. The only fault I
can find with the game's graphics is the fact that because everything
is just so detailed, it's one of a small handful of games that shows
that the Super Famicom/SNES does have a limit to its colour palette.
Goku's Super Saiyan hair for instance looks to be mostly drawn with
the same shades as his skin; both being a gold-ish tan.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oa-sehRgNIE/UGfiPuB_Z2I/AAAAAAAAA0E/GYNbI3AsHoU/s1600/Hyper+Dimension+GokuHairPaletteCompare.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oa-sehRgNIE/UGfiPuB_Z2I/AAAAAAAAA0E/GYNbI3AsHoU/s320/Hyper+Dimension+GokuHairPaletteCompare.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The colours in the column on the left were 'pick-coloured' from his hair and the colours in the right column are from his face. A couple were reused and a couple are unique.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The game is also flexible in whether or not you want a fight to span multiple stages, featuring a 'single-stage' mode where you don't have to select stages in full sets and Dimension Kicks no longer traverse the additional areas.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Dragon
Ball Z: Hyper Dimension feels very much like it was game built from
the ground up to be a very good <i>fighting
game </i>first, and a very
good<i> Dragon Ball game</i>
second. I have absolutely no complaints about that approach. This
is the one standout of the Super Famicom titles that's worth playing
no matter what your opinion on the franchise. Honestly, there's still more I could say about the game and I might even try to do a more thorough dedicated review for it in the future. But for now, I need to move on.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Unfortunately, unlike the Super Butouden trilogy, Hyper Dimension was never released outside of Japan. However, if you're like me and own a device that can play Super Famicom games (a Retro Duo in my case), then you can actually find some pretty decently priced copies on eBay, ranging from $10-$50 depending on condition and whether or not there's a box.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next Time: Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Sony Playstation.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-39541776493986604162012-09-29T15:25:00.000-05:002012-09-30T02:15:46.967-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HfMLMQlBVs/UGZ7Jz6rOmI/AAAAAAAAAwI/BdLHtAsWHpc/s1600/Super+Butouden+Title+Screen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HfMLMQlBVs/UGZ7Jz6rOmI/AAAAAAAAAwI/BdLHtAsWHpc/s1600/Super+Butouden+Title+Screen.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Super
Butouden</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A-ha! A fighting game!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Augh, my eyes!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
OK,
to be fair, Super Butouden is not an awful-looking game but it's very
subpar. The graphics are very gaudy with extremely high-contrasting
colours, over-detailed in many places (seriously, why is the sky drawn with pixelated noise?) and under-detailed in many
more. I do have to give it credit for being the only of the fighting
games for a very long time to include my favourite design of Gohan
(i.e. his Super Saiyan <b>1</b>
form; the vast majority of fighting games in the era only included
his Super Saiyan 2 form).</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XGQX8mb0XEo/UGZ7IrNitTI/AAAAAAAAAvw/QEGnAP3Ibek/s1600/Super+Butouden+Character+Select.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XGQX8mb0XEo/UGZ7IrNitTI/AAAAAAAAAvw/QEGnAP3Ibek/s200/Super+Butouden+Character+Select.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
This game was, to my knowledge, the very first Dragon Ball Z fighting
game and with that in mind, it's an admirable first step. The
physics lack polish and the game in general is very slow but it's
actually an OK fighter.<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
However, it lacks a lot in variety; 3 of the 5 unlockable characters
are alternate forms of characters in the default roster, several
attacks make multiple appearances throughout character movelists, and
the stage select is rather limited.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yd9XzlBq_8I/UGZ7JJEQqoI/AAAAAAAAAv4/DR_eabzr43o/s1600/Super+Butouden+Gameplay+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yd9XzlBq_8I/UGZ7JJEQqoI/AAAAAAAAAv4/DR_eabzr43o/s200/Super+Butouden+Gameplay+1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
Truth be told, I had no idea this game was the first Super Butouden title when I first played it. I had played the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> prior and was actually looking for Hyper Dimension. I downloaded this from a ROM site that incorrectly labelled it as being Hyper Dimension. And it's really no surprise that I couldn't tell it was the first of the Butouden series, it seems almost nothing like its 2 successors.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hRzCZ9dusbQ/UGZ7JvhweyI/AAAAAAAAAwA/7cEhHFkI3sc/s1600/Super+Butouden+Gameplay+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hRzCZ9dusbQ/UGZ7JvhweyI/AAAAAAAAAwA/7cEhHFkI3sc/s200/Super+Butouden+Gameplay+2.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
First of the differences to note is the method of unlocking secret
characters, the first Super Butouden has its own unique code for it
while 2 and 3 share a code. In the first Butouden, you unlock the
secret characters by holding the shoulder buttons (L and R) and doing
circles on the D-Pad and the face buttons (A, B, X, Y) while the
intro is playing until you hear Goku's voice say something (I don't speak Japanese so I have no idea what it is).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The roster is as follows:</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Starting Roster: Goku (base form), Vegeta (base form), #20/Dr. Gero,
#16, Piccolo, Frieza (100% Power), #18, Cell (first form).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Secret Characters: Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan Vegeta, Super
Saiyan Gohan, Perfect Cell, Super Saiyan Future Trunks</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is actually the most secret characters of the 3 Super Famicom
Butouden titles, but again 3 of them are just alternate forms of
characters who are already playable without the code.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Mr.
Satan also makes an appearance as a joke character during the story
mode (which spans the Piccolo Jr. saga to the Cell Games saga). When
you reach Perfect Cell, you are given the option of choosing to fight
him with Goku, Gohan or Mr. Satan. Choosing Mr. Satan the first time
will display a somewhat crude rendition of the scene in the anime
where he attempts to attack Cell and Cell just bats him away into a
mountain; I say it's crude because it doesn't even show the
characters making contact, Mr. Satan kicks and punches the air a few
times, then Cell swats at the air and it sends Mr. Satan flying.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After that, you're returned to the character select and you can still
choose Mr. Satan one more time. This time, he'll just hold his
stomach and keel over, much like in the anime when he pretended to
have a bad stomach ache that was stopping him from fighting. After
that, you'll return to the character select and Mr. Satan won't be an
option anymore.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
You may also notice that Piccolo is named Satan in the screenshots. This is due to it being the French release of the game. Yes, the Super Butouden games were actually released outside of Japan, just not in North America.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Movesets, as said before, lack variety; in all of the Super Famicom
fighters, every character has a basic fireball attack. That much is
understandable. But for an example of something less acceptable,
Goku, Piccolo and Gohan all have a move called Goku Kick; performed
by pressing Forward Down Kick while jumping. The following titles
gave Piccolo and Gohan a variation on this attack called the
Levitation Kick where, rather than just zooming at their opponent
with a fiery foot, they stopped in mid-air and kicked the opponent
several times.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The overall physics and combat mechanics aren't very strong when
compared with other fighting titles at the time (especially the likes
of Street Fighter II). It's still not an awful game but you're much
better off with its successors.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Other major differences with the following 2 sequels include graphics
(totally re-done in Super Butouden 2 and 3 maintained that style
while altering the sprites it takes directly from 2), music (although
this actually favours the first game; none of the soundtracks are
very memorable but, in my opinion, the first title's music is
considerably better than what followed), the aforementioned physics
and speed (both vastly improved upon in 2 and tweaked again in 3),
and the method of building energy/Ki.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I
want to set the record straight here because there's a bit of
misinformation on this game that is far too common (I actually had to
correct the Dragon Ball Wiki on this matter). You <b>can</b>
charge in this game. Holding down while flying causes your Energy
metre to build twice as fast. Considering just how slow it builds on
its own, it's still extremely slow when charging but I just want to
get it off my chest that it can be done. In the 2 sequels, as well
as Hyper Dimension, building energy was performed by holding Punch
and Kick (Y and B respectively) and could be done either on the
ground or in the air.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
On that note, the flying mechanic in the first Super Butouden was a
very gimmicky and under-utilized inclusion and, sadly, one of the few
things the sequels did not improve upon. In practice, all it really
did was create a second ground for your characters to traverse.
While in the air, your character would still control just as they
would on the ground (yes, even jumping).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Final Bout, the PlayStation successor to Super Butouden 3 improved
upon the flying, as did Hyper Dimension, but those are different
stories.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWk6hY-efKE/UGdRxRl3xDI/AAAAAAAAAwc/Ho9zxEhA6RI/s1600/Super+Butouden+2+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWk6hY-efKE/UGdRxRl3xDI/AAAAAAAAAwc/Ho9zxEhA6RI/s1600/Super+Butouden+2+Title.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Super
Butouden 2 (or La Légende Saien)</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This
game holds a very special place in my heart because it was my
introduction to many things. It was my introduction to emulation.
It was my introduction to Dragon Ball fighting games. It was my
introduction to Super Saiyans. It was <i>damn
near my introduction to the Dragon Ball franchise. </i>I
had watched the 13-episode long '95 dub of Dragon Ball with very
little interest and never gave Dragon Ball Z a second thought at the
time. Super Butouden 2 enticed me to learn about the characters and,
through a mix of that and the fact that there was nothing else on
before school, I became obsessed with the anime.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iaVPQ71Xs0k/UGdSW9ho_pI/AAAAAAAAAws/Eo3PsDQZPTg/s1600/Super+Butouden+2+Gameplay+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iaVPQ71Xs0k/UGdSW9ho_pI/AAAAAAAAAws/Eo3PsDQZPTg/s200/Super+Butouden+2+Gameplay+2.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That said...it's OK. It is a vast improvement from the first game
but it still does very little to make it stand out as a gem among the
other fighters that were available at the time. On top of that, the
music is some of the worst, most uninspired tracks I have ever heard
in a 16-bit video game.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This game did introduce certain staples such as the standard secret
character code (which was even used in the much more recent Ultimate
Butouden on the DS): Up X Down B L Y R A.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S0gG2SJCAq4/UGdSWg2eyyI/AAAAAAAAAwk/uF4YD3p-LWM/s1600/Super+Butouden+2+Gameplay+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S0gG2SJCAq4/UGdSWg2eyyI/AAAAAAAAAwk/uF4YD3p-LWM/s200/Super+Butouden+2+Gameplay+1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In
this case, the code unlocks Goku (oddly enough) and Broly.
Incidentally, if you have the French version of this game, the code doesn't do anything as those two characters are
unlocked by default. However, you still get confirmation that you
entered the code correctly.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
During the intro sequence, when you put in the code, you hear Broly's
voice say “Kakarotto”. I think this is a very nice touch and a
neat hint at the characters you just unlocked; one character's voice
speaking the name of the other (Kakarotto/Kakarot being Goku's Saiyan
name for anyone who didn't already know).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qv3mlTlnROM/UGdSdYdcgBI/AAAAAAAAAxE/Eu-arhsI2l4/s1600/Super+Butouden+2+Story.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qv3mlTlnROM/UGdSdYdcgBI/AAAAAAAAAxE/Eu-arhsI2l4/s200/Super+Butouden+2+Story.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The character roster this time goes Gohan (Super Saiyan 2), Piccolo,
Super Vegeta, Future Trunks (Super Saiyan), Bojack (Second Form),
Zangya, Perfect Cell, Cell Jr., and of course the unlockable Super
Saiyan Goku and Legendary Super Saiyan Broly.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is the first of the fighting games to feature Cell Jr. as well
as not just 1 but 2 movie villains.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fbGJmnjcZ1g/UGdSYJLEKgI/AAAAAAAAAw8/MAuzVhvfgXU/s1600/Super+Butouden+2+Mr.+Satan.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fbGJmnjcZ1g/UGdSYJLEKgI/AAAAAAAAAw8/MAuzVhvfgXU/s200/Super+Butouden+2+Mr.+Satan.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It also features a joke appearance by Mr. Satan in the story mode
again. This time around, it renders the scene of his attempt at
fighting Cell much more accurately by showing him actually making
contact with the villain. However, some accuracy is also lost in the
lack of a Cell Games Arena stage.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The story mode in this game covers the Cell Games and then moves into
entirely original plots involving Bojack and, as long as you don't
play on Easy, Broly. The game does not follow the plots of the
movies those characters were introduced in.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Chief among the improvements from the first title are graphics. The
game looks infinitely better than the first; it actually looks better
than much of the third. In fact, I'd call it one of the best-looking
fighting games on the console.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tVgVrWjpKlU/UGdUYNQPqAI/AAAAAAAAAxM/0qfjyLVFIdk/s1600/Supter+Butouden+2+Beam+Battle.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tVgVrWjpKlU/UGdUYNQPqAI/AAAAAAAAAxM/0qfjyLVFIdk/s200/Supter+Butouden+2+Beam+Battle.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In addition, there are improved physics, and new gameplay mechanics
were also included such as the famed “beam battles”. In the
first game, when a character responded to an energy wave with one of
their own, they just cancelled each other out. Now, they clash and
the two players (or one player and the CPU) must compete to see who
can mash the A button the fastest. The loser takes the full force of
their enemy's attack.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The game still suffers from being too slow. Walk speeds are damn
near intolerable but, thankfully, every character has a dash maneuver
mapped to the L and R buttons that doesn't use any Ki and can be used
as long as the player wants (the first game also had dashing and it
could even be used to knock your enemy down; that bit was removed in
the sequels). Unfortunately, building Ki is also intolerably slow
and, unlike walking speeds, there's no way around it in this game.
It's only ever so slightly faster than the first game.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
All in all, you'll probably enjoy this game if you're a fan and even
if you're not, it's still an OK game. There are far worse titles you
could spend your free time on.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ph6EbzueNIo/UGdUmxEO2ZI/AAAAAAAAAxU/3M24pS1vbUE/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ph6EbzueNIo/UGdUmxEO2ZI/AAAAAAAAAxU/3M24pS1vbUE/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Title.png" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Super
Butouden 3 (or Ultime Menace)</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The last of the 3 Butouden games to appear on the Super Famicom and
arguably the best. This game finally brought the speed up
considerably in both movement and charging energy. However, this
iteration does have some of its own problems.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D2b2RoY0q60/UGdWFzKmAZI/AAAAAAAAAxc/-7ZmXX1bhFk/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Gameplay+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZaWNSTsxG9w/UGdWGZwroMI/AAAAAAAAAxk/nSSg6lD2Ijc/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Tournament+Select.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZaWNSTsxG9w/UGdWGZwroMI/AAAAAAAAAxk/nSSg6lD2Ijc/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Tournament+Select.png" /></a></div>
There is a lack of variety once again; Saiyans make up a majority of
the roster, there are less stages than in the second title and
there's no story mode. An ending credits scene can still be accessed
by completing a tournament in which the first player is crowned
champion but it still feels a little hollow.<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D2b2RoY0q60/UGdWFzKmAZI/AAAAAAAAAxc/-7ZmXX1bhFk/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Gameplay+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D2b2RoY0q60/UGdWFzKmAZI/AAAAAAAAAxc/-7ZmXX1bhFk/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Gameplay+4.png" /></a>
Once again, a secret character can be unlocked with the same code
used in Super Butouden 2. Input it during the intro where you see a
portrait of Goku and Majin Vegeta fade into each other and you'll
hear a swishing sound effect. This unlocks Super Saiyan Future
Trunks.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The character roster goes Goku (Super Saiyan 2), Majin Vegeta, Goten
(Super Saiyan), Kid Trunks (Super Saiyan), Future Trunks (Super
Saiyan), Gohan (Super Saiyan) Supreme Kai/Kaioshin, Dabura, Fat Buu,
and Android #18.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Note that over half of the roster is composed of Super Saiyans,
adding to the feeling of minimal variety.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Goku's,
Future Trunks's, and Vegeta's sprites are all lifted from Super
Butouden 2 with modifications. Goku and Trunks both had their hair
recoloured in a more orangey-gold palette. Vegeta's outfit was
altered so it's accurate to his Buu arc appearance; you could argue
that this makes it a new sprite entirely but his head remained
completely unchanged (oddly leaving his Super Saiyan hair
inconsistently coloured with some of the other characters) and all of
his animations were the same. On that note, there is a colouring
inconsistency with the hair as Gohan and Vegeta retain the shade of
yellow from Super Butouden 2 (Goten's hair uses this shade as well),
meanwhile Goku, Kid Trunks and Future Trunks all use a new, more
gold-looking palette.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ks9J01xWagY/UGdXQAmXQeI/AAAAAAAAAxs/rSLlusaKHBE/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Gameplay+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ks9J01xWagY/UGdXQAmXQeI/AAAAAAAAAxs/rSLlusaKHBE/s200/Super+Butouden+3+Gameplay+1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
For the most part, the sprites look on the same level of quality as
in the second game if not slightly better, but the stages actually
look worse being horribly under-detailed in comparison to the
predecessor.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n1OZxBXqJZQ/UGdXppfNxLI/AAAAAAAAAx8/othBU_hbi-0/s1600/Super+Butouden+3+Beam+Battle.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n1OZxBXqJZQ/UGdXppfNxLI/AAAAAAAAAx8/othBU_hbi-0/s200/Super+Butouden+3+Beam+Battle.png" width="200" /></a>Additionally,
beam battles also took a colossal hit in visuals. They look <b>so</b>
lame this time around. In Super Butouden 2, clashing beams had a
very detailed end sprite, complete with an animation of the beams
struggling to dominate each other and even electricity effects
flowing around them. That's all gone in the third title. Now beams
just meat in the center of the screen, have a very dull,
'splash'-looking end sprite and don't move back and forth.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Aesthetics aside though, it is objectively a superior title to the
second game, boasting much better speed and slightly better physics.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next Time: Hyper Dimesnion. Awww yeah. That one gets its own post to itself.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-88544189566086797722012-09-28T20:59:00.002-05:002012-09-28T20:59:44.627-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>Super Famicom/SNES Games Part 1</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bE0dkuAQSu4/UGXz1DQQ9fI/AAAAAAAAAuE/-Hc0AgoSrbw/s1600/SuperFamicom_jr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bE0dkuAQSu4/UGXz1DQQ9fI/AAAAAAAAAuE/-Hc0AgoSrbw/s320/SuperFamicom_jr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
On
the Super Famicom (which is, of course, the Japanese Super
Nintendo/SNES), we saw some decent Dragon Ball titles. We
also saw a few not-so-decent ones as well. Let's have a look at them
individually.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Coej6BQ4ZJI/UGYfaHPZLcI/AAAAAAAAAuY/jQ3hrLYsy-M/s1600/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Coej6BQ4ZJI/UGYfaHPZLcI/AAAAAAAAAuY/jQ3hrLYsy-M/s320/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Title.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The
Legend of the Super Saiyan</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Another game that has poor graphics even by the hardware standards
but not an absolutely awful game. It's not exactly a good game
either. If you are a fan, this game can be a guilty pleasure. If
you are not a fan, this doesn't provide anything special in the
gameplay department so you may as well steer clear.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Legend of the Super Saiyan is a full Card Battle (ugh) RPG that
covers the first arc of Dragon Ball Z's story (from Raditz's
appearance to Goku defeating Frieza). While the game's visuals are
very poor, the music can be very catchy; the overworld theme on Earth
being the particular standout.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ikr2IWHHKP4/UGYfnmDLWTI/AAAAAAAAAug/BMcFxKKK1k4/s1600/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Earth+Battle+Saibamen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ikr2IWHHKP4/UGYfnmDLWTI/AAAAAAAAAug/BMcFxKKK1k4/s200/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Earth+Battle+Saibamen.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The
game actually has some decent ideas that keep it from being a total
waste of time. Firstly, you are not absolutely forced into following
the anime's plot verbatim. It is possible in this game for
Tenshinhan/Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamcha to survive the battle with
Vegeta and Nappa (where they all died in the anime). Conversely, you
can also <i>let</i>
Krillin die in that battle and it won't result in a Game Over (game
over's being dependant on when necessary characters die; the only
necessary characters in this scenario being Gohan and Goku) even
though Krillin survived in the anime.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Piccolo, on the other hand, if you manage to keep him alive during
the actual battles, he'll die by way of cut-scene anyway.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This
is not only useful in that you'll have a much larger team when you
travel to Namek, it also provides a great pay-off. In the final
battle with Frieza, to trigger Goku's Super Saiyan transformation,
all you have to do is let any 1 character die (except Gohan which
will be Game Over). This means that you can intentionally send your
weakest party member (usually Chiaotzu) to be the sacrifice. So you
end up still having a fairly large party for the final boss.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mi3bxZEa6ao/UGYfoVvFYDI/AAAAAAAAAuo/6ENza05WY4k/s1600/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Earth.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mi3bxZEa6ao/UGYfoVvFYDI/AAAAAAAAAuo/6ENza05WY4k/s200/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Earth.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Another clever mechanic used is the addition of 'fake bosses' as
warnings. For instance, at the beginning of the game if you travel
directly to Raditz without grinding any levels, you'll actually first
have to face a fake Raditz who turns out to be a Saibamen in
disguise. He's only there until you either defeat him or reach a
certain level cap. I like this because it acts as a warning for when
you are about to face a boss who you almost certainly cannot beat at
your current level.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
The following two paragraph contains spoilers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There is a secret final boss in the game as well. You can fight
Super Saiyan Vegeta post-credits so long as you keep Vegeta alive
during the battle with Frieza (another departure from the anime where
Vegeta's death was a rather pivotal moment). Since I played a fan
translation of the game I can't be sure if the dialogue is accurate,
but if it is then what Vegeta says before transforming makes
absolutely no sense. You see Goku flying over Namek during the
credits (Namek having not been destroyed by Frieza in this version of
the story) and, after the credits finish rolling, Vegeta appears in
front of him and claims, “I killed Frieza!!”.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I really do not understand the point of the dialogue as a pre-battle
message, nor do I understand why Vegeta is nonsensically lying to
you. In any case, Vegeta then powers up to a Super Saiyan state and
what follows is the strongest boss battle of the game.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xCB9UA8LrRs/UGZTUm4Nl3I/AAAAAAAAAu8/Z70ZKE-7Vx0/s1600/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Namek+Battle+Ginyu+Force+Clones.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xCB9UA8LrRs/UGZTUm4Nl3I/AAAAAAAAAu8/Z70ZKE-7Vx0/s200/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Namek+Battle+Ginyu+Force+Clones.png" width="200" /></a></div>
As mentioned before, this is another Card Battle game. This is
probably the top reason why I simply cannot call it a good game; Card
Battle systems are (in most cases) tedious, confusing, far too
heavily based in chance, frustrating, and boring.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The
game has many many quirks, especially in its graphics. One of the
most notable is the lack of Goku's hairstyle changing when he becomes
a Super Saiyan. Rather than the drastic upward flare seen in the
manga and anime, in this title, the very tips of his spikes flare up
ever so slightly and his hair gets re-coloured a flat yellow. When I
first saw screenshots of this before I had actually played far
enough, I was near certain they were faked; it really looked like
somebody opened the game in MS Paint and used the fill bucket on
Goku's hair. Nope. That's <i>actually
what it looks like in the game.</i></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Additionally,
if you thought beat'em-ups like Maximum Carnage and Final Fight were
bad for palette-swapped enemies, just wait until you see all of the
various technicoloured Saibamen and Ginyu Force member clones you'll be fighting in <i>this</i>
game.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eDBDk2FuOAI/UGZTWH-POjI/AAAAAAAAAvM/Q1QI8FZFQOM/s1600/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Namek.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eDBDk2FuOAI/UGZTWH-POjI/AAAAAAAAAvM/Q1QI8FZFQOM/s200/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Namek.png" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mnDk3aXmqKA/UGZTVJvcuCI/AAAAAAAAAvE/vSx0IzqPPoM/s1600/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Namek+Battle+Ginyus.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mnDk3aXmqKA/UGZTVJvcuCI/AAAAAAAAAvE/vSx0IzqPPoM/s200/Legend+of+the+Super+Saiyan+Namek+Battle+Ginyus.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are very few redeeming qualities to this game but, as a huge Dragon Ball fan, I saw it through to the end. It does have a couple
of saving graces but it's absolutely a game for fans only. Gamers
gaming for the sake of gaming are not going to find anything of value
here.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rZJtSuAu0JA/UGZUkut_BJI/AAAAAAAAAvU/c1zpQJqhlPA/s1600/Super+Gokuden+2+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rZJtSuAu0JA/UGZUkut_BJI/AAAAAAAAAvU/c1zpQJqhlPA/s1600/Super+Gokuden+2+Title.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Super
Gokuden 1 & 2</b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Plain and simple, these games are extremely boring. I will not be
surprised if I get flak for that statement as these seem like the
exact kind of games that would garner cult classic status, but the
fact is that they are just plain dull.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
They do, however, have rather charming forms of presentation and very
nice graphics. That's where the good stuff ends though.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Both of these titles are, in practice, slightly interactive motion
comics in which the only actual gameplay comes in the form of
battles.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I only got as far as Mt. Frying Pan/Fire Mountain in the first game
so I cannot vouch for how much of Dragon Ball's story it covers
(probably to the defeat of King Piccolo). I beat the second game
though.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The
first Super Gokuden begins, appropriately, at the very beginning of
Dragon Ball with Goku living alone in the mountains. This game
returns to the board game style overworld of some of the Famicom
games but it, admittedly, does a <b>much</b>
better job of it making travelling from one area to the next quick
and usually uninterrupted.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The
combat systems are what really hurts both of these games; they makes
absolutely no god damned sense. In the first Super Gokuden, the
battle system is an awkward form of quickdraw in which both
characters slowly inch toward each other. Once one character reaches
a certain point (which is not indicated by anything at all*) they can
execute some sort of maneuver; be it a combo, a special attack, a
counter, a block or whatever. It's never very clear what each button
does normally or what they do in response to an enemy attack; none of
the multiple fan translations I've tried of this game explain the
battle system adequately. Even after reading a couple guides, I
still had little to no idea what I was doing.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*I know the character's sprite
will flash when they reach that point but I mean that there's nothing
on-screen to indicate what the point is.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aUrg_D1oeyQ/UGZU-IC2BtI/AAAAAAAAAvc/ye9A9TyR2vw/s1600/GokuDidn'tUnderstood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aUrg_D1oeyQ/UGZU-IC2BtI/AAAAAAAAAvc/ye9A9TyR2vw/s320/GokuDidn'tUnderstood.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">I didn't understood well either.</span></div>
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</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As I said, I actually did complete Super Gokuden 2; it had a vaguely
similar but more straightforward combat system (a bit more akin to intricate Rock Paper Scissors than quickdraw) that made it a much
more tolerable experience. This sequel covers the Piccolo Jr. saga
of Dragon Ball up to (once again) Goku defeating Frieza.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Although I will give credit where credit is due. As I said, the
games do have nice graphics, charming presentation and, in addition,
they have some spectacular music.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Super Gokuden 2 is tolerable if you're a fan, but once again neither
of these games offers a must-play experience to anybody. It would be
really nice to see some fighting games...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next Time: The Super Butouden Trilogy.</div>
<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-72812772899107651892012-09-28T02:43:00.000-05:002012-09-28T21:00:37.199-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective Part 1Let's kick it off with some retro stuff. Dragon Ball games on the Famicom/NES.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qR5L2Afsoi4/UGVKPsC5UOI/AAAAAAAAAtM/A7G5aP1UIjY/s1600/DatachTitle.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qR5L2Afsoi4/UGVKPsC5UOI/AAAAAAAAAtM/A7G5aP1UIjY/s200/DatachTitle.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc8Yt8Rye8k/UGVKQI4QedI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/AjmuY6MYy04/s1600/Dragon+Ball+3+Gokuden+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc8Yt8Rye8k/UGVKQI4QedI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/AjmuY6MYy04/s200/Dragon+Ball+3+Gokuden+Title.png" width="200" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H_-gZL4xW2E/UGVKQrjzxiI/AAAAAAAAAtY/xfNPAtApYSU/s1600/Dragon+Ball+Z+III+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H_-gZL4xW2E/UGVKQrjzxiI/AAAAAAAAAtY/xfNPAtApYSU/s200/Dragon+Ball+Z+III+Title.png" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
They
all suck. The one's that I've been able to play anyway. Some of the
Famicom games utilized a card
reader that never saw a western release and thus these games will not
play properly on either a legitimate NES (regardless of whether or
not you have a Famicom-to-NES adapter for the cartridge) or an
emulator.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The
only of the Famicom Dragon Ball games to see an English release was Shenron's Riddle/Mystery of Shen Long (depending on how you translate it), which was renamed Dragon Power with everything
that made it identifiable as a Dragon Ball game altered. Considering
Dragon Ball had yet to air in North America at the time (this was
even before the 5-episode Harmony Gold dub of '89), this made sense.
Unfortunately, as said before, the game sucks anyway.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Mystery
of Shen Long/Dragon Power is honestly the best of the NES/Famicom
Dragon Ball titles so that should give you fair warning if you're
going to try any of the others. It's an overhead beat'em-up game
that very loosely follows the plot of the anime. There is absolutely
no polish in the game, it has dozens of glitches, poor graphics even
by 8-bit standards, and next to no thought put into level design and
difficulty curve.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P-SG78B9n_s/UGVRs4N1RcI/AAAAAAAAAtw/y42w4ftZVNg/s1600/Dragon+Power+Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P-SG78B9n_s/UGVRs4N1RcI/AAAAAAAAAtw/y42w4ftZVNg/s320/Dragon+Power+Title.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The
other, even worse, games are all 'Card Battle' games; with the
absolute worst of the bunch blending in simulated board game
mechanics. For the unfamiliar, Card Battle games use a combat system
similar to turn based RPG's except instead of being able to command
each of your characters to do absolutely anything you want, you have
to choose from a hand of cards, each with their own meaning. It
probably sounds dumb, and it kind of is, but the mechanic is not a
totally lost cause (more on that in the Gameboy Color portion).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As
a gamer, these games are not worth your time. As a Dragon Ball fan,
these games are <i>still</i>
not worth your time. Don't bother with any of them.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next time: Super Famicom Games Part 1. Don't worry, it'll be a lot more positive.</div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-66070533901704361692012-09-28T01:47:00.002-05:002012-09-28T01:47:43.228-05:00Dragon Ball Video Games: A Retrospective: IntroductionSo I happened to be browsing eBay for some old game lots and came across an auction for a bundle of Dragon Ball Z Famicom titles. At first, I was quite tempted. But then I remembered that all of those games are terrible. Some good came of that though; it gave me an idea. For the next few posts, I'll be posting a retrospective of my personal experience with Dragon Ball video games, basically giving a mini-review to every one that I've played.<br />
I actually have it all typed up sans a bit of proofreading already so I'll be breaking it up (as it is <b>way</b> too long for one post) and adding some images and screenshots for the sake of attaining more eye-pleasing formatting.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ueuxv_ZVuhE/UGVH0KHqrbI/AAAAAAAAAs4/jc_coPvRbO4/s1600/DBZLogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="103" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ueuxv_ZVuhE/UGVH0KHqrbI/AAAAAAAAAs4/jc_coPvRbO4/s320/DBZLogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Beginning with the next post (which I'll probably have up before heading to bed tonight), let the retrospective begin!Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-29199765944932584762012-09-08T03:22:00.001-05:002012-09-08T03:22:08.195-05:00NostalgiagasmSo, I've been on a big kick of retro-gaming love lately and was browsing through lists of top NES games. I'm considering getting a Retro Duo (a third party console that plays both NES and SNES games) so I wanted to find some titles I might track down for it. The only 2 NES games I still have are, well, awful awful games (Platoon and Ikari Warriors II) that we couldn't sell off at multiple garage sales.<br />
The result of this search? I am now filled with tremendous amounts of joy. One of my favourite games as a child that I had <i>totally</i> forgotten about for nearly 20 years now appeared on one of the lists I found...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wK1wvmI-oF0/UEr4YHkAD4I/AAAAAAAAAsk/Cb47ZLCSWsA/s1600/nes_tiny-toon-adventures_3106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wK1wvmI-oF0/UEr4YHkAD4I/AAAAAAAAAsk/Cb47ZLCSWsA/s1600/nes_tiny-toon-adventures_3106.jpg" /></a></div>
Make no mistake just because it's a "license title"; the Tiny Toon Adventures game for the NES is not only actually good but absolutely fantastic to boot. It probably owes its quality to the fact that it emulates Super Mario Bros. 3 in several ways but it does a lot to set itself apart too.<br />
Much like Mario 3, the game controls flawlessly; a sad rarity among 8-bit platformers. The movement pacing, the jump arcs, the gravity, etc. is all exactly what you would want it to be.<br />
The levels are relatively short when compared with Mario games and other platformers but they still entertain and enemy placement and bosses get progressively more difficult to deal with.<br />
What really gives this game it's own identity is the way the character selection works. You always start out as playing Buster but before each level, you choose a partner to take with you. Your options are Plucky, Dizzy and Furrball. Each of these partners have special abilities that Buster doesn't; my favourite is Furrball who can cling to and jump up walls.<br />
When you grab a ball with a star on it, you change from Buster to your chosen partner. To change back, you need to find another ball.<br />
You also collect carrots much like coins in Mario and, again much like Mario, you can use the carrots to earn extra lives from Hamton.<br />
You might wonder why you would ever want to return to playing as Buster after switching to a partner since he has no special abilities. This might be one minor flaw with the game as the truth is, there are very few reasons. The most major difference between the characters is their speed; all 3 of the partners move slower than Buster, Dizzy being the slowest while Plucky and Furrball move at the same speed, which is an OK balance when you consider that the game (once again, much like Mario) has a time limit on every level. Even so, just the fact that the developers (Konami) actually even <b>thought</b> to balance a character roster in a 1991 platformer based on a cartoon series just blows me away. Speaking of, one other factor that the game may owe its quality to is its date of release.<br />
Released in December of 1991, this game came right at the very tail end of the NES's lifespan, the Super Famicom was already a year old and the SNES came out the same year (in fact, several months <i>before</i> this game). In this respect, Tiny Toon Adventures is very similar to Metal Storm, another fantastic game that came out on the NES after the console was already on its way out.<br />
So how come I'm not gushing over Metal Storm as well? Because I never knew it existed until I saw footage from it in Egoraptor's Sequelitis video about Mega Man X. Tiny Toon Adventures, on the other hand, was one of the most prominent video games of my early childhood, and it damn well deserved to be.<br />
The fact that I forgot about this game entirely for nearly 2 decades is just unforgivable. If you have any love for 8-bit games, especially platformers/sidescrollers, you owe it to yourself to play this one.<br />
<br />Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-57018952046843997132012-08-21T18:21:00.000-06:002012-08-21T18:21:19.107-06:00Anime RevolutionSo I had a damn good weekend. My timing for moving out to Vancouver turned out to be very lucky in that it coincided closely with the convention Anime Revolution. The last time I went to an anime convention was in 2004 when I went to Anime North and I was very underwhelmed. However, Anime Revolution, <i>especially</i> for it being a brand new convention, was <b>so</b> much better.<br />
I suppose it's also worth noting that this time around I was actually old enough to attend some of the 18+ panels but even so, the PG panels were more rich in content and diversity and the experience was just all around a lot more fun.<br />
<br />
Plus, the Nostalgia Critic was <b>EVERYWHERE.</b> I got a photo with him the first day I was there, I also attended a panel he headed; then the next day, I bumped into him in the hall unexpectedly, I attended a Brony panel which he briefly crashed, and I went to the 18+ improv panel which he took part in which was entirely to my surprise; then the third day, he was spending a lot of time in the gaming room and I got to watch him play Super Smash Bros. Melee (badly) for a bit.<br />
Aside from Doug Walker being around every corner, the remainder of the con was also very enjoyable. I went to the swimsuit contest which was both very funny and cringe-inducing when the contestants did Q&A in-character. I saw a lot of My Little Pony cosplayers though was frustrated that I saw around 7 Rainbow Dash's and only 2 Fluttershy's (only 1 on the first day).<br />
I went to a panel about making indie games out of curiosity; I do have some ambition for it but I'd rather focus on animating when it comes down to it. I have to respect the hell out of the panelists for insisting that you do not promise to pay your artists with "exposure in the credits, because they will hate you"; I've been there multiple times myself and believe me when I say that they are absolutely right, it does <b>nothing</b> for the artist professionally or personally.<br />
The Anime Jeopardy panel wasn't great; it was run by two people who had never run a panel before and even if they hadn't told us, it still would have been uncomfortably obvious. But there was some amusement to be had so I suppose it's alright in the end. The Name That Anime Tune was, as well, a little dull in my opinion but it was run better.<br />
I also got a picture of Spoony (Noah Antwiler) enjoying a pixie stick.<br />
There were a lot of other panels I wish I could have made it to (and I must admit to a slight interest in the speed dating panel) but simply did not have the time since I had other places to be on the weekend as well (the convention center is about a half hour walk from where I'm currently staying). In the end, I'm very happy that I finally have my figuarts Vegeta after BigBadToyStore understocked and canceled my order several months back.<br />
I didn't take a whole lot of pictures but I might post what I did get in another post.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-1292471343332285262012-07-23T11:48:00.001-06:002012-07-23T12:02:27.180-06:00The Dark Knight Rises Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Z90QfE2V1s/UA15IKkcSpI/AAAAAAAAAqw/wKs9ieuS2kM/s1600/dkr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Z90QfE2V1s/UA15IKkcSpI/AAAAAAAAAqw/wKs9ieuS2kM/s320/dkr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>The Dark Knight Rises</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Batman is one of my favourite...things...ever. The Dark Knight (2008) is one of my favourite movies ever. The Dark Knight Rises was...<b>sorely</b> underwhelming.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Spoiler-free Review: It's not worth seeing in theaters. Skip it, maybe wait to find it on TV and, if you like it enough, buy the DVD (hopefully found for a low price).</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I didn't hate it, but I was never very engaged by it and, especially after the previous installment, was quite let down.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Spoilerific Review:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The good:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-Action scenes are well-done.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-A particular sequence of Catwoman and Batman taking down several of Bane's underlings is very fun to watch.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-The effects work is great and everything is visually totally believable.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-Most of the performances are top-notch.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-Anne Hathaway actually made a really good Catwoman.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-John Blake is, for most of the movie, a very intriguing character.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-Scarecrow, or rather Dr. Crane, makes a cool cameo.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-There are some cool references to Knightfall.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-The final shot of the movie (John Blake ascending the elevator to the Batcave) is pretty damn satisfying.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The bad:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-The story is an absolute mess of tiny plotholes and pointlessness.</div>
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-Batman somehow manages to hide 'The Bat' (his new airborne vehicle) in a dark alley with nobody noticing. Keep in mind that The Bat is <b>huge</b>. It's not like a tiny flying bicycle. You've probably seen it in the trailers. He hid <b>that</b> in an alley.</div>
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-Batman is beaten by Bane, taken to a prison far from Gotham in a totally secluded area, left with no money, identification or anything, and, following his escape, somehow gets back to Gotham within a matter of a few days with absolutely no explanation.</div>
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-Bane's defeat is incredibly anticlimactic and also not very clear. I was certain he was about to get back up. After leaving the theater, I couldn't even remember what happened to him for several minutes.</div>
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Batman was actually on the verge of defeating Bane in a pretty cool fight before he's interrupted; Bane's defeat would have been far more satisfying if that fight had actually reached such a conclusion.</div>
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-Batman's voice. It's still the laughable, roid-raging Cookie Monster voice and it's still painfully goofy and out of place. He continues using this voice even when talking to Catwoman totally alone after she already knows who he is. That's just pointless.</div>
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-Bane's voice. I've heard it described as "Sean Connery playing Darth Vader" and I think that's pretty accurate. So, we have the two most major characters with incredibly cheesy, out of place and hard to understand voices.<br />
-Bruce Wayne's introduction (re-introduction?) is a little too reminiscent of the recent Sherlock Holmes for my taste. I doubt this was a conscious move on Nolan's part since both movies would have been in production during the same period of time but it still bugs me. There's an eerie sense of déja vu when you see Bruce as an eccentric shut-in in much the same way as we were reintroduced to Holmes in A Game of Shadows.</div>
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-Catwoman's entire role was pretty useless. Her involvement with the main plot is so minimal that it rivals the hackers in Michael Bay's Transformers. She has a subplot to herself that never ties into the main story. Ultimately, she's a plot device used as a way to bring Batman to finding Bane's sewer dwellings.<br />
-Catwoman's drive during the movie is to get her hands on a program called The Clean Slate which can wipe out somebody's criminal record instantly. Why she was ever motivated to be a thief in the first place is never explained and how she thinks wiping her name from computers is going to give her a new life when John Blake already showed her that they have hard copies of crime papers and photos of her is also never explained.</div>
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-There is a double twist that first tells you that Bane is Ra's Al Ghul's offspring but then you find out it was actually this movie's iteration of Talia Al Ghul (who had been under the guise of Miranda beforehand). The twist itself is actually good, but the purpose it serves is...well, totally nonexistent. It would have served the story just as well if it was just left as Bane being Ra's's son.</div>
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-Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, John Blake, discovers Batman's identity through what has got to be the most nonsensical BS that this entire movie series has to offer. It basically boils down to, "We're both orphans so when I saw that fake smile on your face, I knew you had to be Batman.". Blake was set up to be extremely proficient at detective work (so much so that even though he starts the movie as just an officer, Gordon insists that he changes positions to detective) so it would only seem logical to have him discover Bruce Wayne is Batman by way of something that was actually tangible.</div>
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In the season 3 finale of The Batman, Batman's identity is discovered by a robot built by Professor Strange (D.A.V.E.) who used statistical analysis to uncover the truth and we see the exact statistics he went through and...that was really cool. It was a great plot and a great explanation as to how someone (or something) with enough intellectual prowess, analytical thinking and access to the right information could discover who Batman is. Nolan gave us some "fake smile" bit that left me unsure if I was supposed to be emotionally invested in the idea or left cringing at such a horrible macguffin.</div>
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The what?:</div>
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-The Robin namedrop. Near the end of the film, John Blake reveals that his first name is actually Robin. This seems to just be a nod to fans of the character. The ending of the film actually seems to imply that Blake is ultimately going to become the next Batman.</div>
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It's just a very strange namedrop, and seemed pretty pointless. I would have personally found a 'Terry' namedrop pretty cool though that would probably go over the heads of most of the audience.</div>
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-The entire ending is just...what?</div>
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Batman hooks a bomb, that has a blast radius of 6 miles and approximately 2 minutes before detonation, to The Bat and flies it out of Gotham. There's a serious issue with the time it would take to hook up the bomb, then fly it out of the city limits, then fly it 6 miles away from the city limits fast enough that it doesn't detonate, but perhaps the larger issue is the incredibly weird fake-out ending. Batman apparently dies when the bomb goes off but following scenes suggest he made a last second escape. How?</div>
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Lucius Fox is told that Bruce Wayne fixed the autopilot on The Bat (which was brought up a few times through the movie) several months earlier. OK. So, still, how did Batman escape the blast? He's shown <b>in</b> The Bat in the shot immediately before the explosion. Even if you consider the cut between those shots a time jump (which shouldn't be possible considering how little time was left on the bomb's countdown), that still fails to explain how he could have gotten away from the <b>6-mile-wide explosion.</b></div>
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We know he was still in The Bat after exiting the city limits because we can see the ocean through the windows of The Bat. Considering the time and distance he had to travel in both directions (out of Gotham in The Bat, and then back to Gotham by...swimming?) it doesn't make sense that he survived. Telling us the autopilot was fixed does not give us a full explanation.</div>
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And of course, one of the last scenes of the movie, we see Bruce Wayne, totally fine, out of the country, enjoying a date with Selina Kyle (Catwoman), so we're given little choice to take his apparent death as ambiguous. The movie just says, "he didn't actually die, because he didn't actually die, so deal with it.".</div>
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It's far from the worst superhero movie (far from the worst Batman movie in fact) but it still pales in comparison to both of its predecessors. I really don't think that it's worth rushing out to see as soon as possible.</div>
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I really wanted to love both this and Amazing Spider-Man but they just aren't very good. I say, out of your options, see Avengers (if you haven't already) and skip Bats and Spidey. If you have seen Avengers and still really want to check out one of these other two, go for Spider-Man.</div>Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-75744347416493441812012-07-04T14:02:00.000-06:002012-07-04T14:13:36.606-06:00The Amazing Spider-Man Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><u>The Amazing Spider-Man</u></b></div>
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Well, I haven't done a movie review in a while so here goes. If you do not want spoilers for this movie, <b>stop reading now.</b> My critiques of this movie require that I spoil plenty of it.</div>
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Everyone who doesn't want spoilers is gone now, right?</div>
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Good.</div>
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I liked it. I didn't love it. I think Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie was an all-around better movie and a better representation of the character. Webb's Amazing Spider-Man catches some of the hallmarks of the character that Raimi didn't while dropping some others.</div>
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So first off, what I liked:</div>
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-The acting is <b>way</b> better than the acting in the Raimi films.</div>
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-The action is also much better; the fight choreography is extremely clever and makes great use of Spider-Man's and the Lizard's abilities.</div>
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-Spidey has web shooters in this one and we even get to see a montage of the construction process.</div>
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-Rather than being killed off, Dr. Connors is somewhat redeemed in the movie's climax; still being jailed but shown to be regaining his compassion.</div>
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-True to the comics, Gwen Stacy is the first love of Peter Parker in this universe (although it does skip over Daily Bugle receptionist Betty Brant as his first girlfriend and, in fact, leaves the Bugle entirely absent from the story).</div>
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-Again true to the comics, Flash Thompson becomes a Spider-Man fanboy.</div>
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-The entire second half of the movie is very thoroughly entertaining.</div>
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-Spider-Man is a trash-talker; a hallmark from the comics that Raimi missed.</div>
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What I didn't like:</div>
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-There are a couple of unresolved plot threads (which may be lead-ins for sequels though I can't be sure): Norman Osborn never appears on-screen, but is said to be dying and Connors is in charge of curing him. Once Connors becomes the Lizard, Norman's never mentioned again.</div>
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-I forget the character's name but there is an Oscorp employee who shuts down Connors research and is attacked by the Lizard at one point but survives and...totally disappears for the rest of the movie despite being portrayed as a prominent character until then.</div>
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-Aunt May is vaguely implied to suspect that Peter is Spider-Man in one scene but we never get any confirmation that she knows.</div>
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-The characters of Harry Osborn and Eddie Brock are nowhere to be found. This isn't really an issue with the quality of the film as much as it is a personal nitpick.</div>
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-The first half of the movie really drags. I found myself amazed that it had only been 2 and a half hours when I walked out of the theater; it felt like it had been at least 4.</div>
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-Barring 2 very short shots, the 3D was not utilized very well.</div>
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-The mid-credits scene hardly set anything up. It was an obvious sequel hook but told the audience nothing about what they could look forward to.<br />
-There is an awkward period joke between Gwen Stacy and her father; disturbingly reminiscent of the masturbation joke between Sam and his parents in Transformers (2007).</div>
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What I absolutely hated:</div>
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-The handling of Uncle Ben's death and the following pursuit of his killer. It starts out <i>mostly</i> the same; Peter lets a criminal go due to a petty grudge against the man who was robbed. The criminal happens across Uncle Ben and shoots him. Then things totally fall apart.</div>
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First note that Peter's grudge against the victim of the robbery (in this case a convenience store clerk) isn't even legitimate; he was short 2 cents for a bottle of milk and the clerk refused to let him buy it. More importantly is the movie's failure to even recognize the entire point of this whole situation.</div>
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Peter doesn't go after the criminal right away, learn it's the same guy he let go earlier, and realize his folly. No. In this iteration, he goes out for revenge <i style="font-weight: bold;">after</i> realizing that it was his fault.</div>
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The original flow did a great service to the entire "responsibility" theme of the character. Spectacular Spider-Man even built upon it by having Spidey ultimately save the crook in honour of what Uncle Ben taught him. In The Amazing Spider-Man, that's all thrown right out the window.</div>
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Peter already knows he screwed up but, in complete disregard of Uncle Ben's teachings, spends several nights beating to a pulp every crook he can find who he <i>thinks</i> might be the same guy. Keep in mind that he does this <i>before</i> being able to confirm whether or not he's attacking the right person (checking for a defining tattoo only after breaking a few ribs or so). And, of course, he does this once before having a mask putting himself and everyone he might be seen with in danger.</div>
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Incidentally, Uncle Ben's killer is yet another unresolved plot thread; Peter gives up the search for him after Captain Stacy, at a dinner Peter attends, makes note to mention that everyone Spider-Man is attacking has similar features.</div>
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So rather than give up on his revenge because he wants to honour what his only real father figure taught him shortly before dying, <i>this</i> Spider-Man gives up just because the police are on to him.</div>
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<i>That is not responsibility!</i></div>
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Changing the origin story for the sake of originality is a fine idea; probably a good one in this case since everyone knows the original story by now and it's nice to have something new. This particular change, however, made little sense and only served to damage one of the strongest themes of the titular character.</div>
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The recent boom of superhero movies was lead by Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man film and it's easy to see why; that movie was very good. It represented the character mostly accurately, it had an incredibly concise script (there was maybe 20 seconds of filler in the whole movie), the story was well-told and the effects were state of the art for the time. (Unfortunately, the following two sequels didn't keep up the quality.)</div>
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10 years hence, Marc Webb has quite an act to follow and I don't think he made as strong of a movie. It's worth seeing, though not in 3D, and it has some good and refreshing takes on certain aspects. It also has some significant problems (that will probably irk comic fans more than the average movie-goer).</div>
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In the end, I doubt I'll be making room for this movie on my shelf. It's just OK.</div>
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<i>I played through the 3DS game in the week leading up to the movie (perhaps a mistake since it takes place after the movie and spoiled certain plot points) and just want to say that it's OK too.</i></div>Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-92229408062602486362012-06-22T00:49:00.000-06:002012-06-22T00:49:00.385-06:00Not Sure If Back or Just In a Wonderful Dream<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OGAu_DeKckI" width="420"></iframe><br />
Futurama's back!<br />
The new season's premier episodes aired last night. The first new episode actually made use of the "Not Sure If" meme in its title screen gag.<br />
In general, I found these episodes very funny. I might get some more in-depth thoughts posted later.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-24490178424472187012012-06-06T15:39:00.000-06:002012-06-06T15:39:17.957-06:00Penn & Teller at Ceasars WindsorI'm not going to do my analysis of the Big 3's E3 conferences this year. I only watched Nintendo's and was rather disappointed.<br />
With that out of the way, <b>I MET TELLER!</b><br />
Penn and Teller are two of my biggest heroes still alive today. This past Saturday, they played Ceasars Casino in Windsor, Ontario (where I live). After the show, they were hanging around in the lobby to meet fans. Unfortunately, when I came to the front of the line, Penn was busy with a group of 4 people and, even after I had finished meeting Teller, they still hadn't left. When I looked over at the Casino employees, they motioned for me to get moving so I sadly had to settle for not meeting Penn despite being 5 feet away from him.<br />
Still, Teller was very nice, he signed my season one set of Bullshit and I got a picture with him.<br />
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I also had a copy of Penn's book, 'God, No!', with me. I was hoping to get him to sign the book and the DVD set as well. Oh well. This just gives me a good reason to be sure that I see them live again some day.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655754625806985516.post-48730566767498421122012-05-24T22:26:00.001-06:002012-05-24T22:26:12.647-06:00Mario Tennis Open First ImpressionsI have to admit I'm a little disappointed with the 3DS's game library so far. I only own 4 games for it. By this time in the original DS's life, I had about a dozen games, none of which I regretted buying.<br />
Mario Kart 7 is a lot of fun and I hope I can get around to posting a proper review of it in the next week or so.<br />
But anyway, I bought Mario Tennis Open this passed weekend and thought I would go ahead and talk about my initial impression of it:<br />Meh.<br />
I'm really <b>really</b> disappointed that Nintendo <i>still</i> hasn't revisited the "RPG" mode they included in Mario Tennis for Gameboy Color; that was my favourite of the Mario Tennis games for that very reason. I'm not a fan of traditional JRPG's, and Mario Tennis (GBC) was anything but traditional with it and made it a lot of fun. Mario Tennis Open, on the other hand, feels like it was the minimal effort Nintendo could have put into it without having to call it a demo.<br />
There is a Tournament mode which takes some cues from Mario Kart with it being split up into "Mushroom", "Banana", "Fire Flower", etc. tournaments and that's as close as the game gets to a career mode. There are some mini-games which I have yet to try out.<br />
So anyway. as of right now, I'm very underwhelmed with the newest Mario Tennis title.Erik The Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328523149484636890noreply@blogger.com0